Finding an effective hearing testing protocol to identify hearing loss and middle ear disease in school-aged children.

This descriptive study defined an effective hearing testing protocol for elementary school-aged children (N = 41). It compared the identification of hearing loss and middle ear disease using pure tone threshold audiometry with tympanometry to using pure tone threshold audiometry. Betty Neuman's Systems Model was used as the conceptual framework for this study. Results showed that a greater number of ears were identified with middle ear disease using the research protocol (n = 22) than would have been identified with middle ear disease (n = 9) using pure tone audiometry alone. The same number of ears (n = 26) were identified with hearing loss using either method. The study further demonstrates a difference between the first and second hearing test results using the specified protocol that validates the necessity for repeating the two tests after 4 weeks before making referrals.