A new study found that a person’s mental health affects how they perceive their hearing to be compared to actual test results based on two different types of self-assessments, according to a study published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head Neck Surgery.
Patient-reported outcomes are valuable to assess hearing, but they aren’t always the same as clinical results from audiology tests. Researchers wanted to see if an individual’s mental health played a role in how they perceived hearing compared to audiometry results, and if the type of questionnaire played a role.
All of the 395 people (average age nearly 56 years old) reported on their hearing abilities through either standard static or adaptive versions of the Inner Effectiveness of Auditory Rehabilitation (EAR) scale, a questionnaire that gauges how people perceive their hearing to be, as opposed to clinical measures. A static questionnaire is the same for each person; adaptive testing chooses high-yield items for each patient and shortens the available list of questions based on the person’s responses. Data included details on mental health and audiometry data along with EAR scale data based on static and adaptive scores.
While better mental health — reflected in those with better word recognition scores — appeared to elevate static Inner EAR mean scores, there was not a link between word recognition scores and standard static Inner EAR scores among people with poorer mental health. By contrast, people with better mental health had higher adaptive Inner EAR mean scores.
“This diagnostic/prognostic study found that psychological status was an effect modifier of the association between standard Inner EAR scale scores and audiometry results, with an association seen in patients with better mental health and no association in those with worse mental health,” the authors wrote. “Adaptive testing scores, however, remained significantly associated with audiometry, even when mental status was worse.”
“Adaptive testing based on item response theory was observed to stabilize the association between subjective and objective outcomes,” the authors added.
