Monitoring Audiometry In Hearing Conservation Programs.

An issue of crucial importance to any Hearing Conservation Program is the criteria for determining Significant Threshold Shift STS, that is, the cut point for positive abnormal versus negative normal findings for an audiometric test. A second issue of importance is the follow-up process that most efficiently confirms that STS. The goal of an appropriate STS criteria is to identify individuals early in the process of noise-induced hearing loss before serious hearing loss occurs, but to avoid falsely identifying normal variability as noise-induced hearing loss. Data from the US Air Force Hearing Conservation Data Registry were used to evaluate these issues.