IMPACT OF BACKGROUND NOISE ON WIDEBAND ABSORBANCE FINDINGS

Introduction Measuring wideband absorbance (WBA) in noisy environments can potentially lead to inaccurate results due to noise contamination. However, research investigating the effect of background noise on WBA is scant. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of increasing levels of background noise on WBA results. Material and methods A non-randomised, cross-sectional, repeated measures design was used. Participants were 50 adults who passed otoscopic examination, pure tone audiometry, and tympanometry screening in their right ear. WBA was measured using an Interacoustics Titan immittance device under four broadband noise conditions: quiet (no applied noise), 55 dBA, 65 dBA, and 75 dBA. Results Increasing noise levels were associated with decreasing mean absorbance at 0.25–2.5 kHz with the greatest difference of 0.049 (normalised difference of 7.76%) found between the quiet and 75 dBA noise conditions at 1 kHz. Conversely, increasing noise levels were associated with increasing mean absorbance at high frequencies (4–8 kHz) with the greatest difference of 0.035 (normalised difference of 12.9%) found between the quiet and 75 dBA noise conditions at 5 kHz. Conclusions The present study found statistically significant differences in WBA findings with increasing broadband noise levels of up to 75 dBA. However, the WBA differences were too small to be of clinical significance.