INTERPRETATION OF HINT RESULTS

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