Loading...
Hearing impairment is common in adults and is important to detect in children. The whispered voice, used commonly to screen for hearing impairment, is the one test that has been evaluated in both adults and children. In a particular version of the whispered voice test, the examiner stands at arm's length behind a seated patient, whispers a combination of numbers and letters, and asks the patient to repeat them; each ear is tested while the other is masked. In this systematic review, investigators provide a summary of the test's accuracy.
Australian researchers found 8 studies (4 in adults and 4 in children) in which the whispered voice test was compared with audiometry. In adults, sensitivity of the whispered voice test ranged from 90% to 10…