Gordon-Hickey Susan, Adams Elizabeth, Moore Robert, Gaal Ashley, Berry Katie, Brock Sommer
Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL 36688-002, USA.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2012 Jul-Aug;23(7):534-41. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.23.7.5.
The acceptable noise level (ANL) serves to accurately predict the listener's likelihood of success with amplification. It has been proposed as a pre-hearing aid fitting protocol for hearing aid selection and counseling purposes. The ANL is a subjective measure of the listener's ability to accept background noise. Measurement of ANL relies on the tester and listener to follow the instructions set forth. To date, no research has explored the reliability of ANL as measured across clinicians or testers.
To examine the intertester reliability of ANL.
A descriptive quasi-experimental reliability study was completed. ANL was measured for one group of listeners by three testers.
Three participants served as testers. Each tester was familiar with basic audiometry. Twenty-five young adults with normal hearing served as listeners.
DATA COLLECTION/ANALYSIS: Each tester was stationed in a laboratory with the needed equipment. Listeners were instructed to report to these laboratories in a random order provided by the experimenters. The testers assessed most comfortable listening level (MCL) and background noise level (BNL) for all 25 listeners.
Intraclass correlation coefficients were significant and revealed that MCL, BNL, and ANLs are reliable across testers. Additionally, one-way ANOVAs for MCL, BNL, and ANL were not significant. These findings indicate that MCL, BNL, and ANL do not differ significantly when measured by different testers.
If the ANL instruction set is accurately followed, ANL can be reliably measured across testers, laboratories, and clinics. Intertester reliability of ANL allows for comparison across ANLs measured by different individuals. Findings of the present study indicate that tester reliability can be ruled out as a factor contributing to the disparity of mean ANLs reported in the literature.
可接受噪声水平（ANL）有助于准确预测佩戴助听器后聆听者获得成功的可能性。它已被提议作为一种用于助听器选择和咨询目的的助听前适配方案。ANL是对聆听者接受背景噪声能力的一种主观测量。ANL的测量依赖于测试者和聆听者遵循既定的指示。迄今为止，尚无研究探讨不同临床医生或测试者测量的ANL的可靠性。
检验ANL在不同测试者之间的可靠性。
完成了一项描述性准实验性可靠性研究。由三名测试者对一组聆听者测量ANL。
三名参与者担任测试者。每位测试者都熟悉基本听力测定法。25名听力正常的年轻成年人作为聆听者。
数据收集/分析：每位测试者驻扎在配备所需设备的实验室。聆听者按照实验者提供的随机顺序前往这些实验室报到。测试者评估了所有25名聆听者的最舒适聆听水平（MCL）和背景噪声水平（BNL）。
组内相关系数显著，表明MCL、BNL和ANL在不同测试者之间是可靠的。此外, MCL、BNL和ANL的单因素方差分析不显著。这些结果表明，不同测试者测量时，MCL、BNL和ANL没有显著差异。
如果准确遵循ANL的指示集，那么在不同测试者、实验室和诊所之间都可以可靠地测量ANL。ANL在不同测试者之间的可靠性使得不同个体测量的ANL之间能够进行比较。本研究结果表明，可以排除测试者可靠性这一因素对文献中报道的平均ANL差异的影响。
