Results for the U.S. National hearing test administered by telephone or online to adults interested in testing their hearing

OBJECTIVE: To present the results from the telephone and online versions of the National Hearing Test (NHT), a triple-digit speech-in-noise test available in the U.S., for large convenience samples of adults. DESIGN: NHT results from everyone who chose to take the test from 2013 to 2025 are presented. Regression analyses for the prediction of PTA4 (pure-tone average for 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz) from the NHT are also presented, using separate calibration datasets. STUDY SAMPLE: Data from voluntary test takers were either from the telephone administration of the NHT from 2013 to 2025 to 170,856 adults (336,372 ears) or from online testing in 2025 with 11,208 adults (22,259 ears) all of whom were self-selected through concerns about their hearing. Participant age ranged from 18 to 99 years and about 60% were females. RESULTS: Analyses of both the telephone-based and online NHT datasets found large age-related differences in test results, whereas the effects of sex and ear were very small. The predictive models for PTA4 for the two calibration datasets with complete audiograms found reasonably accurate identification of hearing loss. CONCLUSIONS: Both versions of the NHT provided reasonably accurate identification of hearing loss.