This retrospective study was undertaken to identify the prevalence of hearing loss in the homeless population and its implications for vocational rehabilitation. Audiometric threshold data for adult residents of an urban homeless shelter were collected and reported. Subjects with hearing loss were identified and defined by their binaural high-frequency pure tone average (B-HFPTA). Those subjects were assigned a predicted Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults-Screener (HHIA-S) score. Their HHIA-S scores, in turn, were used to predict hearing handicap and hearing aid candidacy. Significant hearing handicap was predicted for 35.6% of subjects; 10.6% were identified as hearing aid candidates. These findings have implications for vocational rehabilitation that have not been previously addressed.

These results have implications for goal setting and planning within the profession and for audiologists' career choices.

Tinnitus loudness tracking does not appear to hold promise as a clinical tool for the identification of participants exhibiting pseudotinnitus.

We examined a 38-year-old male with syringohydromyelia and concomitant symptoms suggestive of intracranial hypertension including unilateral low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss and objective pulsatile tinnitus. The tinnitus was heard by the authors (through a hearing aid stethoscope tube), measured objectively (with a probe microphone), measured subjectively (as minimum masking levels and with fixed frequency Bekesy), and altered by changes in ear canal pressure (subjectively reported and measured objectively with a probe microphone). The audiologic symptoms were likely associated with elevated cerebrospinal fluid pressure that traveled to the cochlea through the cochlear aqueduct. The tinnitus may have originated from pulsations of central vascular structures that traveled through the cochlear aqueduct or the endolymphatic duct. Hearing loss likely resulted from tinnitus masking or a stiffening of the cochlear partition or stapes footplate.

No abstract