Objective Assessment Of Hearing

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

The loss of hearing - be it gradual or acute, mild or severe, present since birth or acquired in older age - can have significant effects on one's communication abilities, quality of life, social participation, and health. Despite this, many people with hearing loss do not seek or receive hearing health care. The reasons are numerous, complex, and often interconnected. For some, hearing health care is not affordable. For others, the appropriate services are difficult to access, or individuals do not know how or where to access them. Others may not want to deal with the stigma that they and society may associate with needing hearing health care and obtaining that care. Still others do not recognize they need hearing health care, as hearing loss is an invisible health condition that often worsens gradually over time. In the United States, an estimated 30 million individuals (12.7 percent of Americans ages 12 years or older) have hearing loss. Globally, hearing loss has been identified as the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Successful hearing health care enables individuals with hearing loss to have the freedom to communicate in their environments in ways that are culturally appropriate and that preserve their dignity and function. Hearing Health Care for Adults focuses on improving the accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults of all ages. This study examines the hearing health care system, with a focus on non-surgical technologies and services, and offers recommendations for improving access to, the affordability of, and the quality of hearing health care for adults of all ages.

An Essential Guide to Hearing and Balance Disorders consolidates the most significant clinical aspects of hearing and balance disorders, ranging from cause and diagnosis to treatment and cure. Experts in various subspecialties of this extensive topic introduce readers to the most sophisticated and state of the art methods of diagnosis and treatment. Each chapter expands on a specific topic area along the continuum of how medical personnel diagnose hearing and balance disorders, to how surgical implantation of the cochlea and rehabilitation can remedy various conditions. In concise format, the book begins with a case history and follows with comprehensive descriptions of current knowledge regarding fundamental causes of hearing loss and balance disorders, as well as a thorough examination of objective assessment. The latter half of the volume presents specialized treatment and rehabilitative options for various disorders. The chapters in this part cover special topics and conclude with pertinent case studies. Unique areas of discussion in a text of this kind include: genetics of deafness pediatric hearing loss and hearing loss later in life business essentials in audiology private practice professional issues, such as ethics, methods of practice, and conflicts of interest. As its title implies, this book is critically important for all students and professionals in hearing/balance related disciplines, including audiology, otolaryngology, general medicine, and rehabilitation oriented allied health care occupations.

Assessment of the central auditory nervous system; pseudohypacusis; occupational hearing loss prevention; and instrumentation and calibration. For hearing professionals and others looking for the latest information on contemporary hearing assessment.

"Much research has been conducted to provide researchers and hearing healthcare professionals with updated information in regard to hearing assessments, results interpretation and case management. This ongoing research is particularly imperative to guide clinicians with optimized methods in assessing and managing pediatric patients with hearing impairment and disability. As such, tremendous research efforts have been made in determining the most optimum methods in assessing hearing using both subjective and objective tests. Since hearing loss can occur due to disrupted peripheral and/or central auditory pathway, there is also a growing interest to study children with auditory processing disorder (APD). Even though notable achievements have been observed in understanding APD, more research is required, particularly in establishing a gold standard APD test and its specific interventions. Aditionally, having an objective test such as speech-evoked auditory brainstem response is beneficial to understand how speech sounds are encoded within the brainstem region in hearing-impaired children, as well as in those with compromised neural function. In this book, we have gathered research from Malaysia and India in this field and hope it will be of interest to our readers"--

This is the third edition of the foremost medical reference on hereditary hearing loss. Chapters on epidemiology, embryology, non-syndromic hearing loss, and syndromic forms of hearing loss have all been updated with particular attention to the vast amount of new information on molecular mechanisms, and chapters on clinical and molecular diagnosis and on genetic susceptibility to ototoxic factors have been added. As in previous editions, the syndromes are grouped by system (visual, metabolic, cardiologic, neurologic, musculoskeletal, endocrine, etc.), with each chapter written by a recognized expert in the field. Written for practicing clinicians, this volume is an excellent reference for physicians, audiologists, and other professionals working with individuals with hearing loss and their families, and can also serve as a text for clinical training programs and for researchers in the hearing sciences.