Evaluation of the Korean digits-in-noise test to classify the degree of hearing loss. 2025

Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
Hearing, Balance, and Integrated Neuroscience Laboratory, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang, Republic of Korea.

To assess the feasibility of a newly developed PC-based Korean digits-in-noise (K-DiN) test for categorising the degree of hearing loss in participants with normal hearing and various degrees of hearing loss. The results of the Korean matrix sentence test (K-matrix) were compared with the corresponding K-DiN test results. Correlation analysis examined the relationships between the K-DiN speech reception thresholds (SRTs), age, pure-tone average (PTA), and K-Matrix SRTs. Receiver operating characteristic curves were constructed to evaluate the discriminatory ability of K-DiN across different degrees of hearing loss. K-DiN testing was conducted on 73 individuals with normal hearing and 166 individuals with hearing loss. Subsequently, 93 individuals were subjected to the K-Matrix. The K-DiN SRTs exhibited significant correlations with the PTA thresholds and K-Matrix SRTs. For detecting mild hearing loss, the K-DiN test demonstrated 90% sensitivity and 98% specificity with a -4 dB signal-to-noise ratio cut-off, accompanied by an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.98. Furthermore, the more severe the hearing loss, the lower the AUC value. The findings from this study highlight the K-DiN test's excellent discriminative ability for differentiating normal hearing from hearing loss and for categorising individuals into distinct hearing-loss groups.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
January 2016, Ear and hearing,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
January 2021, Ear and hearing,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
October 2021, Journal of audiology & otology,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
January 2022, Ear and hearing,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
April 2024, Audiology research,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
November 2023, International journal of audiology,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
June 2008, International journal of audiology,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
January 2018, Ear and hearing,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
June 2020, Journal of Korean medical science,
Ji-Hye Han, and Sungmin Jo, and Seungik Jeon, and Jihyun Lee, and Jae Hee Lee, and Hyo-Jeong Lee
October 2020, International journal of audiology,
Copied contents to your clipboard!