Functionally-based screening criteria for hearing-critical jobs based on the Hearing in Noise Test.

Effective communication is a crucial requirement in many workplaces to ensure safe and effective operations. Often, critical verbal communications are carried out in noise, which can be very challenging, particularly for individuals with hearing loss. Diagnostic measures of hearing, such as the audiogram, are not adequate to make accurate predictions of speech intelligibility in real-world environments for specific workers, and thus are not generally suitable as a basis for making employment decisions. Instead, the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) has been identified and validated for use in predicting speech intelligibility in a wide range of communication environments. The approach to validation of the HINT takes into account the expected voice level of the talker, the communication distance between the talker and the listener, and a statistical model of speech intelligibility in real-world occupational noises. For each hearing-critical task, a HINT screening threshold score is derived upon specification of the minimum level of performance required of the workers. The HINT is available in several languages, so the tools developed are applicable in a wide range of settings, including multilingual workplaces.