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Efficient estimation of auditory sensitivity and cognitive status using spoken-digit tests.

Award Number: R33DC017967
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 02/01/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

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Efficient estimation of auditory sensitivity and cognitive status using spoken-digit tests. - Project Summary/Abstract. Untreated age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is the most prevalent cause of reduced quality of life for persons 55 and older in the US. There are 30+ million hearing-impaired adults in this country, many of whom have never had a hearing test. One reason is the lack of convenient, inexpensive and valid hearing tests that are available to both individuals and hearing professionals. The goal of this project is to develop a family of tests of auditory sensitivity and of related cognitive status that together measure functional hearing loss. If such tests were widely available large numbers of those who suspect they may have hearing loss would take them. This was demonstrated by over 3000 calls in a single day to the telephone-administered National Hearing Test (NHT), without commercial promotion, only in response to a few newspaper articles. The identification of spoken three-digit sequences in a noise background, as used in the NHT, has been shown to correlate strongly with traditional pure-tone measures of hearing loss. Digit-in-noise (DIN) tests have recently been shown to be particularly efficient for screening, since they are reliable, convenient, and require neither sound booths nor highly trained personnel for their administration. A family of DIN tests will be designed to help distinguish poor speech recognition due to sensitivity loss from poor recognition that reflects reduced cognitive processing. The tests will be implemented on smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptop computers with Android or iOS operating systems. The NHT developed earlier for landline phones (Watson et al., 2012; Williams et al., 2014), has been taken by nearly 130,000 callers since 2014. Those data, plus audiograms from 700+ adults (veterans) who were given the DIN test together with other standard audiometry, will guide test development. Optional spoken rather than keypad responses will make the test accessible to children and to elderly adults with motor-control problems. Validation studies will test 590 participants in three university hearing centers. DIN sensitivity tests will be validated in relation to pure-tone audiograms, while cognitive-status tests will be compared to established tests of working memory, executive function, and selective attention. Audiogram slope will be estimated by comparing DIN-test performance using low-frequency masking noise, to that with speech-spectrum noise. This new family of tests on a variety of platforms, will be designed for use in the home, in schools, in primary-care physicians’ offices, in hearing clinics and in noisy businesses. Widespread use of this family of screening tests can make personal knowledge of hearing health as accessible as weighing oneself on the bathroom scale.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $267,053 )
2025	2025	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	8/7/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$235,389
2025	2025	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	5	8/13/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$31,664
														Subtotal = $267,053

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2023	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	4	8/1/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $517,043 )
2023	2023	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	003	4	8/11/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$42,662
2023	2023	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	4	7/25/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$360,360
2023	2022	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	002	3	8/11/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$42,655
2023	2021	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	2	8/11/2023	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$71,366
														Subtotal = $517,043

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $471,773 )
2022	2022	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PLACE	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	3	8/11/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$394,615
2022	2022	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PL STE 107	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	2	12/23/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$77,158
														Subtotal = $471,773

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $359,072 )
2021	2021	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PL STE 107	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	2	9/6/2021	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$359,072
2021	2021	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PL STE 107	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	002	2	9/17/2021	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$0
2021	2021	COMMUNICATION DISORDERS TECHNOLOGY, INC.	3100 E JOHN HINKLE PL STE 107	BLOOMINGTON	IN	47408	MONROE	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	2	9/10/2021	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$0
														Subtotal = $359,072

Grand Total All Awards = $1,614,941

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Efficient estimation of auditory sensitivity and cognitive status using spoken-digit tests.

Award Number: R33DC017967

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 02/01/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 07/31/2026

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