Abstract :
Introduction: Pure tone Audiometry (PTA) is one of the methods to evaluate the burden of hearing loss in any population and various studies have attempted to correlate PTA thresholds with specific conditions. However not many studies correlate the symptoms and signs with the PTA results.
Objective: Analyze the data of those who underwent PTA in a secondary care hospital and to correlate their audiometric and clinical profile.
Materials and Methods: The data of 1002 patients with their demographic profile, symptoms, signs and PTA results were included. Incomplete data were excluded from the study. Statistical analysis was done to correlate the symptoms, signs and demographic profile with the type of hearing loss.
Results: Gender did not have a statistically significant influence on the type of hearing loss (p> 0.05). Sensory Neural Hearing Loss (SNHL) was the commonest type found. It was commoner in the older age group. Influence of age on the type of hearing loss was statistically significant (p Conclusion: Symptoms and signs can be used as a screening tool in a population to identify those requiring evaluation by PTA. It is suggested that a standard symptom based questionnaire which can be either selfadministered or can be used by a community health worker to screen the population be framed.
Keyword :
Audiological symptoms and signs, Pure tone audiometry, Conductive hearing loss, Mixed hearing loss, Sensory neural hearing loss.