Unoccluded bone conduction screening as an alternative to impedance screening.

The present study was undertaken to determine which intensity level of an unoccluded bone-conducted (BC) signal might be best suited for use as a supplemental procedure to an individual pure-tone air-conduction school screening program. Four intensity levels (0, 5, 10, 15 dB hearing level) of a 500 Hz BC tone were presented in ascending order to a public school population in addition to screening by impedance audiometry and pure-tone air conducted signals. Tetrachoric analysis using impedance screening results as a standard comparison revealed that a 10-dB unoccluded BC signal at 500 Hz provided an effective supplemental procedure for identifying conductive pathology in the population studied.