Internet platform with screening test for hearing loss and for providing related health services

Abstract

An adaptive screening tool for hearing loss for use over the internet. The test is part of a web-based system which providing hearing related information and health services. The system allows users of the internet located anywhere in the world to perform a screening test in the privacy of their own homes or offices. The test is performed well above the threshold level of the user, and screens users for their ability to detect small changes in intensity within bursts of sound delivered to the user through headphones. Users are given a first or preliminary test to establish a base intensity. Then, after the base intensity is established, a second test for hearing loss is presented. The second test asks the user to identify which of a plurality of similar sounds, or stimuli, is different from the others because it has a short duration deviation embedded in it. The deviation or differentiating characteristic may be: a) an increase or decrease in at least a portion of one in a plurality of similar sounds, and/or b) an increase or decrease in the frequency or pitch of at least a portion of one in a plurality of similar sounds and/or c) an increase or decrease in the duration of one of a plurality of similar sounds. The series of sounds, one of which contains a differentiating characteristic, may be designed so that the differentiating characteristic is detectable only by persons with certain kinds of hearing losses. Alternatively or in combination, such additional groups or series of sounds in which one sound of a plurality of similar sounds in the series is capable of being identified only by persons with normal hearing. Based upon the user's score on the screening tests, the user may be directed to a source for further information on how to deal with partial hearing loss.