Limited Audiological Assessment Results in Children With Otitis Media With Effusion.
Gabrielle R Merchant, Sarah Al-Salim, Delaney Skretta and 1 others
PMID 37759362WHAT IT FOUND
Standard behavioral hearing tests failed to yield ear-specific results for 74% of children with fluid in the middle ear during clinic visits.
Even in an idealized research setting, half of the ears had no thresholds. Tympanometry and OAEs succeeded but do not measure hearing.
Key findings
01Ear-specific behavioral audiometric thresholds were not obtained in 74% of ears with OME during standard clinical visits.
02Even in a controlled research setting with longer visits and assistants, zero ear-specific thresholds were obtained in 53% of ears with OME.
03Tympanometry and DPOAEs were successfully measured in 85–100% of ears, but neither is a direct measure of hearing status.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted at a specialized urban hospital with highly trained pediatric audiologists and resources; results may be worse in general practice. The research visit occurred after the clinical visit, so learning effects or familiarity with the test might have improved performance in the second session. The study focused on children under 5; older children with stable OME might have different success rates. Sound field results were not quantified in the research setting to focus on ear-specific data.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by NIH grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high success rates of tympanometry and DPOAEs as evidence that hearing status was determined. These tests were easy to complete but do not measure how well the child hears, so a 'pass' or 'normal tympanogram' does not rule out conductive hearing loss.