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Richard H. Wilson, PhD; Rachel McArdle, PhD

Characteristics of audiometric 4,000 Hz notch (744,553 veterans) and 3,000, 4,000, and 6,000 Hz notches (539,932 veterans). Richard H. Wilson, PhD; Rachel McArdle, PhD. Aim Examine prevalence and characteristics of audiograms notched at 4,000 Hz and at 3,000, 4,000, and/or 6,000 Hz.

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Richard H. Wilson, PhD; Rachel McArdle, PhD

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  1. Characteristics of audiometric 4,000 Hz notch (744,553 veterans) and3,000, 4,000, and 6,000 Hz notches (539,932 veterans) Richard H. Wilson, PhD; Rachel McArdle, PhD

  2. Aim • Examine prevalence and characteristics of audiograms notched at 4,000 Hz and at 3,000, 4,000, and/or 6,000 Hz. • Extend findings from previous local group of veterans to substantially larger national group of veterans. • Relevance • Air-conduction audiograms with 3,000, 4,000, and/or 6,000 Hz thresholds at higher hearing levels than adjacent 2,000 and 8,000 Hz thresholds are known as “notched audiograms.”

  3. Method • Bilateral audiograms from ~1 million veterans were obtained from Department of Veterans Affairs archives. • After “cleaning” algorithms, 2 analysis groups formed: • Group 1 (4,000 Hz notch analysis) • 744,553 participants (mean age 63.5 yr). • Group 2 (3,000, 4,000, and/or 6,000 Hz notch analysis) • 539,932 participants (mean age 62.2 yr).

  4. Results • Group 1: • 77.1% did not have 4,000 Hz notch. • Group 2: • 65.3% did not have 3,000, 4,000, or 6,000 Hz notch. • 12.4% had bilateral notches. • Left vs right ear: • 11.7% had left ear notches. • 10.7% had right ear notches. • Low vs high frequency: • Notches about twice as deep on low-frequency side of notch than high-frequency side. • Notch depth about same (23 dB) in both ears.

  5. Conclusion • Finding of more unilateral than bilateral notches prompts at least two hypotheses: • High-frequency notches are caused by multiple factors, including excessive noise exposure. • The ears are differentially sensitive to whatever factors are eventually found to be responsible for high-frequency audiometric notches.

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