Validity of the National Acoustic Laboratories procedure for determining percentage loss of hearing

To evaluate the validity of the National Acoustic Laboratories procedure for determining percentage loss of hearing as a measure of hearing disability.The percentage hearing losses of war veterans who had hearing ranging from normal to profound deafness were determined and compared with their scores on two hearing questionnaires.A self-report hearing questionnaire was completed by 282 war veterans and 154 of those veterans were given the hearing measurement scale in the form of a structured interview.A percentage loss of hearing of 0 agreed well with the questionnaire scores representing the limit of normal hearing, and a percentage loss of hearing of 100 agreed well with the questionnaire scores representing total loss of hearing. Percentage loss of hearing accounted for 83% of the variance in scores on the hearing questionnaire and 81% of the variance in scores on the hearing measurement scale.The National Acoustic Laboratories procedure for determining percentage loss of hearing provides a valid measure of hearing disability.