| dc.description.abstract | Background: In order to develop a Dutch Hearing In Nose Test (HINT) for children, sentences from the adult HINT were selected in a prior study. No norms are available for both children and adults for this newly selected material. Age specific norms are required to compare a child’s performance on the HINT with that of normal hearing peers. Normative data enable optimal evaluation of hearing in noise in Dutch children.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was measuring the performance of various age groups of typically developing children and adults on the HINT to generate age specific norms. The secondary objectives were to validate the HINT by comparing the results of typically developing children on the HINT, the Digits In Noise (DIN) test and the Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) word in noise test, and deriving context factors j and k from the hearing in noise data. Factors j and k provide insights in utilization of redundancy in the speech signal.
Method: A total of 29 children and 20 adults participated in this observational, cross-sectional, psychometric study. Participants performed four hearing in noise tests: the HINT, the DIN, the CVC-sense, and CVC-nonsense test. Mean speech reception thresholds per age group are reported, and between-group comparisons are made. Also, means for context factors per age group are reported.
Results: Most hearing in noise performances were significantly affected by age. However, between-group comparisons mostly did not reveal significant differences between consecutive age groups.
Conclusion: The results generate preliminary normative data to compare a child’s performance on the HINT with that of normal hearing peers.
Recommendations: Future research should focus on including more children to meet up to the sample size criteria, and on including children who meet the in- and exclusion criteria. | |
