Industrial and Screening Audiometry

Question 1

What is a proactive hearing screen?

Answer 1

A screening of people, especially those at risk, before symptoms begin.

Allows for early intervention

Question 2

What is a reactive hearing screen?

Answer 2

Patients with symptoms who self-refer or are referred by a third party

Question 3

Who is responsible for completing hearing screening in industries?

Answer 3

Occupational Health Nurses

Question 4

What types of screening tests can be completed?

Answer 4

Manual and automated

Question 5

How often should a screening audiometer be calibrated?

Answer 5

Every year

Question 6

What are the steps involved in a screening?

Answer 6

Step One:
- Measure ambient noise and calculate the floor of the test

Step Two:
- Case history and hearing protection inspection

Step three:
- Test hearing and compare to baseline audiograms

Question 7

What is one way the effects of ambient noise can be reduced?

Answer 7

By using ear defenders/audio cups or normal ear muffs over inserts

Question 8

What is the effect of using whole octave bands rather than 1/3 octave bands?

Answer 8

Using whole octave bands decreases the maximum permissible levels unnecessarily. It makes the criteria more stringent.

Question 9

What are some automatic screens?

Answer 9

Bekesy audiometry
AMTAS (automated method for testing auditory screening)
Digit Triplet Test