What is HINT?
HINT
basically is used to measure the ability of a person to hear speech in quiet
and in noisy environment. All the results obtained are compared to the normative
data or the person’s own audiogram
HINT test results show 4 information:
1.
Reception Threshold for
Sentences (RTS) : This is the patient’s threshold in quiet or in noise
conditions.
2.
Percentile: Subject’s RTS as a percentile in reference to the normal
distribution of the data (e.g. 90th %ile)
3.
Maximum Percent Intelligibility
Change: Subject’s maximum percent of change in intelligibility. This is the
predicted maximum difference in intelligibility in reference to the mean normal
performance (e.g. the subject’s predicted intelligibility is 23% poorer than
normal hearing intelligibility)
4.
Variability: The reliability of
the test.
In order to
interpret the HINT results, you should
1) Ensure the
value of variability is less than 3.14 dB for each test condition.
The
variability value indicates the reliability of the patient’s response. If the
value for a test condition is more than 3.14 dB, the result is not reliable and
cannot be used. Therefore you need to redo the HINT test for that particular
condition.
2) Then report
the RTS in quiet (dBA) and in noise (dBSNR)
3) Determine
whether the RTS passes or fails the screening criteria.
The RTS
passes or fails by looking at the value of the percentile. The percentile is
important to ensure whether the responses obtained were within normal
percentile or not. The RTS will be considered as “Pass” when the value falls
above the 5th percentile. Likewise, the RTS is failed when it falls below the
5th percentile of the normative data.
4) Report the
value of max % Intell. change.
If the max %
intell change value is positive, it indicates that the patient has better understanding
of speech than a group of normal people. If the value is negative, then it
tells us that the patient has poorer understanding of speech than normal
people.
Credit to:
Dr Wan Syafira Ishak
Lecturer of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia