We are excited to have you join us for an amazing educational line up, check out the agenda below for the 2025 Conference. Please note that this agenda is subject to change.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The examination component of NHANES typically includes a hearing threshold evaluation. Large datasets such as NHANES provide essential information on hearing in various populations as well as an opportunity to examine methodological aspects of audiometry. However, conventional audiometers provide limited stimulus, calibration, test protocol, and data options for researchers. An audiometric system designed to overcome these limitations built on commercially available hardware will be discussed in this presentation. The current system includes automated, semi-automated, and manual threshold-finding procedures; in-situ and fully automated calibration; full control of stimulus and test protocol parameters; comprehensive time and presentation histories; and continuous comparison of stimulus presentation levels against both ambient noise limits and presentation level for boothless applications. The system was developed in 2011 for NIOSH-sponsored projects and has been used in NHANES since 2017. Technical challenges, methodological issues, and performance metrics of the system will be presented. Examples of scientific findings which the system made possible will be discussed. Tools like this have the potential to help transform hearing testing in the future.
