Development and implementation of a military auditory fitness-for-duty test battery

Hearing loss is prevalent throughout the active duty military forces. However, there are no validated standards for assessing a service member’s functional hearing ability and how it relates to his or her ability to accomplish the mission. In many cases, hearing-critical tasks take place in non-optimal environments with background noise or competing speech from multiple sources. Presently, hearing abilities are primarily assessed via pure-tone audiometry, without regard for the hearing-critical needs and noise environment of the individual. The development of a test battery to evaluate functional hearing ability is a highly sought-after goal. With support from the Department of Defense, Creare LLC and the University of Connecticut are developing the MILSINT, a new sound-recognition-in-noise test geared specifically for active duty personnel. The MILSINT is one component of an auditory fitness-for-duty test battery that at present also includes the Military HINT, a version of the Hearing In Noise Test (HIN...