Development of a Battery of Audiological Tests for the Precision Diagnosis of Age-related Hearing Loss
Age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, is caused by many genetic and environmental factors. Its prevalence poses a public health challenge of early identification and effective hearing aid treatment. However, the lack of screening and of a validated audiological test battery to diagnose an individual's needs and to guide hearing aid adjustments is a major obstacle. Furthermore, monogenic forms of hearing loss affect only one functional module of hearing. The audiological test(s) dependent on the function of this module are affected, in a progressive manner, but not the others. A previous study showed that in early onset presbycusis patients, a quarter of the subjects tested were affected by monogenic presbycusis. The collection of audiological and vestibular tests, carried out on proven monogenic presbycusis patients and compared to that of normal hearing patients, would constitute a battery of tests allowing a precision diagnosis, then developed to all forms of presbycusis in order to study if the identification of abnormal functional modules can usefully guide the diagnosis and the early fitting.
⁃ For all participants:
• Be over the age of 18,
• Be affiliated to a social security system,
• Have a good command of the French language (oral and written).
⁃ For the group of participants with anticipated presbycusis:
• Over the age of 40, having a hearing aid recipient or coming for a first hearing aid recipient
• Between 18 and 40, having a hearing aid recipient, coming for a first hearing aid recipient or declare a progressive genetic birth defect
⁃ For healthy volunteers:
⁃ \- Have no known hearing loss.