Relationship of Otoacoustic Emissions to Pure Tones in Evaluating Hearing of College Males

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pure tone audiometry results and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) results in college age males. Twenty-four college age males participated in this study. Twelve subjects had normal hearing and twelve subjects had sensorineural hearing loss. All participants had to have otoscopic examination results and tympanometry results within the normal range to be included in the study. Subjects were administrated a pure tone threshold test and a DPOAE test between the frequencies of 500 Hz and 8000 Hz. The results of the two tests were analyzed at various octaves to determine if a relationship existed between them. The findings of this study indicated that there was a significant relationship between pure tone results and DPOAE results in the hearing-impaired group, whereas the two measures did not significantly correlate in the group with normal hearing status other than to document normal hearing.