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  3. Whispered voice test for screening for hearing impairment in adults and children: systematic review
Primary Care

Whispered voice test for screening for hearing impairment in adults and children: systematic review

BMJ 2003; 327 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.327.7421.967 (Published 23 October 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;327:967
  1. Sandi Pirozzo, senior lecturer in epidemiology (s.pirozzo{at}sph.uq.edu.au)1,
  2. Tracey Papinczak, research officer1,
  3. Paul Glasziou, professor of evidence based practice1
  1. 1School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Qld 4029, Australia
  1. Correspondence to: s.pirozzo@sph.uq.edu.au
  • Accepted 5 August 2003

Abstract

Objective To determine the accuracy of the whispered voice test in detecting hearing impairment in adults and children.

Design Systematic review of studies of test accuracy.

Data sources Medline, Embase, Science Citation Index, unpublished theses, manual searching of bibliographies of known primary and review articles, and contact with authors.

Study selection Two reviewers independently selected and extracted data on study characteristics, quality, and accuracy of studies. Studies were included if they had cross sectional designs, at least one of the index tests was the whispered voice test, and the reference test (audiometry) was performed on at least 80% of the participants.

Data extraction Data were used to form 2 x2 contingency tables with hearing impairment by audiometry as the reference standard.

Data synthesis The eight studies that were found used six different techniques. The sensitivity in the four adult studies was 90% or 100% and the specificity was 70% to 87%. The sensitivity in the four childhood studies ranged from 80% to 96% and specificity ranged from 90% to 98%.

Conclusion The whispered voice test is a simple and accurate test for detecting hearing impairment. There is some concern regarding the lower sensitivity in children and the overall reproducibility of the test, particularly in primary care settings. Further studies should be conducted in primary care settings to explore the influence of components of the testing procedure to optimise test sensitivity and to promote standardisation of the testing procedure.

Footnotes

  • Contributors SP designed the search strategy, participated in the search, designed the data extraction form, reviewed all abstracts and papers, selected studies for inclusion, extracted data, contacted authors of papers, analysed and interpreted data, and wrote and revised the paper. TP conducted the literature search, retrieved full text papers, reviewed all abstracts and papers, selected studies for inclusion, extracted data, and reviewed the manuscript before submission. PG conceived of the study, modified the search strategy, acted as third reviewer in decisions relating to study inclusion and data extraction, helped analyse and interpret data, and modified the paper. SP is guarantor.

  • Funding National Health and Medical Research Council programme grant 211205, which supports the Screening and Test Evaluation Program.

  • Competing interests None declared

  • Ethical approval Not needed

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