Hearing Screening Paper

A study was conducted at Towson University (TU) to investigate the effectiveness of college hearing screenings, notice hearing loss patterns among students, and propose ways to improve the program overall (Taylor & Emanuel, 2013). In 2013, the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology published a study titled, “Assessment of the Efficacy of a Hearing Screening Program for College Students.” The Speech-Language-Hearing Center (SLHC) at TU conducts hearing screenings for college students as a requirement for majors involving effective communication for off-campus internships. The SLHC evaluated the results yielded by this research study and identified possible areas of improvement for the hearing screening program. In order to evaluate efficacy of the hearing screening program, researchers conducted a two-part research design, including a retrospective and prospective study. The retrospective data collection included analysis of hearing screening records from 1991 to 2011 to examine positive predictive value (PPV) and follow-up rates. PPV was deemed poor since only half the students who failed the initial screening also failed a second screening. This result suggests initial screenings were inaccurate, perhaps due to high levels of ambient noise. …show more content…
Since a noise notch was prevalent within the study, the researchers encourage other programs that screen college-populations to include higher frequencies within their screening protocol to discover additional cases of hearing loss. As well as adjusting screening protocol, programs should ensure proper sound treatment of screening booths to avoid inappropriate levels of background noise. Researchers also predict that educating students on the importance of follow-up will likely lead to greater follow-up