Evaluating Hearing Loss for
Individuals with Cochlear Implants
Committee on Evaluating Hearing Loss for
Individuals with Cochlear Implants
Board on Health Care Services
Health and Medicine Division
A Consensus Study Report of
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
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This activity was supported by a contract between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Social Security Administration (Contract No. 28321318D00060015). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-26454-9
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Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26057
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Evaluating hearing loss for individuals with cochlear implants. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26057.
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COMMITTEE ON EVALUATING HEARING LOSS FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS
JUDITH GREEN-McKENZIE (Chair), Professor and Chief, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
RENÉ H. GIFFORD, Professor of Hearing and Speech Sciences and Director of the Cochlear Implant Program, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
FRANK R. LIN, Professor of Otolaryngology and Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Johns Hopkins University
KNASHAWN H. MORALES, Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
SARAH F. POISSANT, Associate Professor and Acting Chair, Communication Disorders Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst
NICHOLAS S. REED, Audiologist and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
GRETA C. STAMPER, Audiology Division Chair and Assistant Professor of Audiology, Mayo Clinic Florida
TERESA A. ZWOLAN, Professor of Otolaryngology and Director of the Cochlear Implant Program, University of Michigan
Consultant
KARL R. WHITE, Professor of Psychology and Director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, Utah State University
Study Staff
CAROLYN FULCO, Scholar
BERNICE CHU, Program Officer
BLAKE REICHMUTH, Associate Program Officer
JOSEPH GOODMAN, Senior Program Assistant
SHARYL NASS, Senior Director, Board on Health Care Services
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Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
JULIE G. ARENBERG, Harvard Medical School
BRUCE J. GANTZ, University of Iowa
HOWARD H. GOLDMAN, University of Maryland School of Medicine
SANDRA GORDON-SALANT, University of Maryland
MICHAEL MERZENICH, University of California, San Francisco
STEPHANIE J. SJOBLAD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by DAN G. BLAZER,
Duke University Medical Center, and BRUCE N. CALONGE, University of Colorado School of Medicine. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
Administration of the Hearing in Noise Test
Salient Characteristics of the Hearing in Noise Test
The Hearing in Noise Test as a Test for Individuals with Cochlear Implants
Limitations of the Hearing in Noise Test
4 CHARACTERISTICS OF HEARING AND SPEECH TESTS
Considerations Beyond Auditory Testing
Conclusions and Recommendation
Single-Sided Deafness, Asymmetric Hearing Loss, and Social Security Disability
6 TEST COMPARISONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Alternative Measures for the Hearing in Noise Test Equivalence
Acronyms and Abbreviations
| 0º azimuth | angle in relation to the listener that is directly in front of the listener |
| AHL | asymmetric hearing loss |
| AzBio | Arizona Biomedical Sentences Test |
| BKB | Bamford, Kowal, and Bench |
| BKB-SIN | Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise Test |
| CID | Central Institute for the Deaf |
| CNC | consonant–nucleus–consonant (refers to the Maryland CNC word test) |
| CPT | current procedural terminology |
| CROS | contralateral routing of signal |
| CUNY | City University of New York |
| dB | decibel (a unit of measure for sound level) |
| dB A | decibels with A-weighted sound levels (designed to mimic the spectral range and audibility curves, in dB SPL, of human hearing) |
| dB HL | decibel hearing level (the decibel measure displayed on an audiometer, normalized so that 0 dB HL = average normal for all frequencies) |
| dB SPL | decibel sound pressure level (the decibel measure that most people are familiar with and referencing the pressure of the measured displacement of air molecules relative to the surrounding or ambient air pressure) |
| DI | disability insurance |
| EPA | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency |
| EXT A or B | external or auxiliary input setting for an audiometer |
| FDA | U.S. Food and Drug Administration |
| HINT | Hearing in Noise Test |
| HINT-C | Hearing in Noise Test-Children |
| Hz | Hertz (a measure of frequency [pitch], describing number of cycles per second) |
| IA | interaural attenuation |
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| LNT | Lexical Neighborhood Test |
| MLNT | Multisyllabic Neighborhood Test |
| MLV | monitored live voice |
| MSTB | Minimum Speech Test Battery |
| NCT | National Clinical Trial |
| NU-6 | Northwestern University Test Number 6 |
| OR | odds ratio |
| PBK | Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten (a word test) |
| PTA | pure tone average |
| QuickSIN | Quick Speech in Noise Test |
| S/B | signal-to-babble ratio |
| SIN | Speech in Noise Test |
| SLM | sound level meter |
| SNR | signal-to-noise ratio |
| SPL | sound pressure level |
| SRM | spatial release from masking |
| SRT | speech recognition threshold |
| SSA | U.S. Social Security Administration |
| SSD | single-sided deafness |
| SSDI | Social Security Disability Insurance |
| SSI | Supplemental Security Income |
| T Level | threshold level |
| UHL | unilateral hearing loss |
| VU meter | volume unit meter (a device that displays a representation of the signal level) |
| WIN | Words in Noise Test |
