Interjudge Reliability and Validation of Telehealth Applications of the Hearing in Noise Test

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to validate administration of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) via telehealth technology. Two experiments were conducted, each with 20 normal-hearing young male and female college students 18 to 30 years of age. In the first experiment, researchers at two separate on-campus locations (Logan, UT) administered the HINT using ViGO remote-control interactive software over a local area network. In the second experiment, the HINT was administered from a local site (Logan, UT) and from a remote site (Minot, ND) over the Internet using the same technology as described in the first experiment. Data from this study revealed that interjudge and intrasubject reliability at local and remote sites were high. These findings suggest that available technology can be used in administering the HINT at remote or underserved locations as effectively as if the testing were face to face.

KEYWORDS

HINT - telehealth - telemedicine - validation

REFERENCES

• 1 Bashshur R L, Reardon T G, Shannon G W. Telemedicine: a new health care delivery system.  Annu Rev Public Health. 2000;  21 613-637
• 2 Mun S K, Turner J W. Telemedicine: emerging e-medicine.  Annu Rev Biomed Eng. 1999;  01 589-610
• 3 Krumm M, Ribera J, Froelich T. Bridging the service gap through audiology telepractice.  Am Speech Lang Hear Assoc Leader. 2002;  7 6-7
• 4 Goldberg B. Linking up with telehealth.  Am Speech Lang Hear Assoc. 1997;  39 26-31
• 5 Nilsson M, Soli S D, Sullivan J A. The development of the hearing in noise test for the measurement of speech reception thresholds in quiet and in noise.  J Acoust Soc Am. 1994;  95 1085-1099
• 6 Humes L E, Halling D, Coughlin M. Reliability and stability of various hearing-aid outcome measures in a group of elderly hearing-aid wearers.  J Speech Hear Res. 1996;  39 923-935
• 7 Maico Diagnostics. Operating Instructions .HINT for Windows Audiometric System. Eden Prairie, MN; Maico Diagnostics 2001
• 8 Landis J, Koch G. The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data.  Biometrics. 1977;  33 159-174