Alam Md Noorain, Munjal Sanjay K, Panda Naresh K, Nayak Gyan Ranjan, Sharma Sagrika, Bhatia Vivek, Sharma Suresh
ENT department, Post Graduate Institute of medical education and research, Chandigarh, India.
Statistics department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
Indian J Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024 Aug;76(4):3081-3087. doi: 10.1007/s12070-024-04606-x. Epub 2024 Mar 16.
The digit in the noise test is a simple hearing screening tool that can identify hearing loss at the early stage. This screening tool takes less time than traditional pure-tone audiometry. There is a scarcity of hearing health professionals with few resources for carrying out hearing screening on a large scale in India. Hence, a hearing screening tool for the Hindi-speaking population is needed.
The study aimed to develop and validate the Digit in Noise test in Hindi (DIN-H).
A native Hindi female speaker recorded single digits from 1 to 9 made into triplet combinations, which were binaurally presented to 20 normal hearing subjects having hearing thresholds less than 25 dBHL from 250 to 8000 Hz in the presence of broadband speech-shaped noise. The digit triplets were homogenized using speech intelligibility function for similar difficulty levels across stimuli. The homogenized stimuli were evaluated by obtaining the Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT) of 20 normal hearing subjects.
The Mean SRT was - 10.4 and - 11.3 dB before and after homogenization. A strong positive correlation existed between test and retest SRTs (0.78). Mean SRT and slope obtained before and after optimization were comparable to other languages like Korean and English. This test can act as a reliable screening tool for assessing individuals. The test was administered to 106 normal hearing participants. The 95th percentile of the SRT value obtained was - 5.6 dB, which was kept as a cut-off score for the screening test.
DIN-H can be used as a screening tool for assessing the integrity of the auditory system on a large scale in less time for the Hindi-speaking population.
噪声环境下数字测试是一种简单的听力筛查工具，能够在早期识别听力损失。这种筛查工具比传统纯音听力测试耗时更少。在印度，听力健康专业人员匮乏，且缺乏大规模开展听力筛查的资源。因此，需要一种针对说印地语人群的听力筛查工具。
本研究旨在开发并验证印地语噪声环境下数字测试（DIN-H）。
一位以印地语为母语的女性录制了从1到9的单个数字，并将其组成三联体组合，在宽带言语形状噪声存在的情况下，将这些组合双耳呈现给20名听力正常的受试者，这些受试者在250至8000赫兹的听力阈值低于25 dBHL。使用言语可懂度函数对数字三联体进行同质化处理，以使不同刺激的难度水平相似。通过获取20名听力正常受试者的言语识别阈值（SRT）来评估同质化后的刺激。
同质化前后的平均SRT分别为-10.4 dB和-11.3 dB。测试和复测SRT之间存在强正相关（0.78）。优化前后获得的平均SRT和斜率与韩语和英语等其他语言相当。该测试可作为评估个体的可靠筛查工具。对106名听力正常的参与者进行了测试。获得的SRT值的第95百分位数为-5.6 dB，将其作为筛查测试的截止分数。
DIN-H可作为一种筛查工具，用于在较短时间内大规模评估说印地语人群的听觉系统完整性。
