Developing an Arabic speech in noise test as a measure of auditory fitness for duty

Abstract

Hearing commands in noisy backgrounds is a frequent and important task in many fast-response occupations such as the military and the police force. Inability to hear and adequately respond may have detrimental effects on employees and their co-workers. Measuring auditory fitness for duty (AFFD) accurately is critical for employing organizations and the livelihood of their employees. While pure-tone audiometry (PTA) is the mainstay of AFFD assessment in Saudi Arabia, it is not a valid predictor of the ability to hear in noise. Speech-in-noise (SiN) tests have higher face validity as AFFD predictors for jobs relying on communication in noise. Arabic SIN tests are scarce, and none have been developed or used for AFFD purposes. Many factors affect SIN test performance. Personality trait conscientiousness, which has been shown to be positively related to job task-performance, may be an overlooked factor related to auditory task performance. The aims of this research were to 1) develop and equalize speech material in noise suitable for fast-response occupations, ensuring homogeneity of the speech material and to adapt the developed material into a test suitable for a representative occupation; and 2) explore the discriminative ability of the developed test to detect mild sensorineural hearing impairment and factors affecting test performance under standard and more challenging listening conditions.
An Arabic speech corpus was developed and optimized for intelligibility in noise. The acceptable levels of variation in homogenous speech material under conditions similar to the developed test were explored using Monte Carlo simulations. The speech material was then implemented into an adaptive procedure and named the Arabic commands in noise test (ACINT). The resultant test was a general SiN test with military characteristics. To explore the effect of conscientiousness on the representative population chosen in the early stages of test development, the Royal Saudi Air Defence (RSADF), feasibility of the personality measure chosen for use, the Arabic NEO-FFI, was determined on Saudi military and civilian samples representative of the populations. Performance on the ACINT was then explored in a normal-hearing sample representative of entry-level military recruits and a hearing-impaired sample, in different listening conditions. There was no effect of conscientiousness in performance as assessed in normal-hearing individuals. The ACINT in its standard format was found to have good repeatability. It also showed good sensitivity and specificity in discriminating between normal and hearing-impaired individuals. Future work is required to assess test reliability and assign cut-off points to the test, based on job specific criterion obtained from large scale task- and noise environment-analysis studies of the target population.

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ORCID for Stefan Bleeck: orcid.org/0000-0003-4378-3394

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