TY - JOUR
T1 - Hearing examinations in Southern Denmark (HESD) database
T2 - a valuable tool for hearing-related epidemiological research
AU - Cantuaria, Manuella Lech
AU - Pedersen, Ellen Raben
AU - Waldorff, Frans Boch
AU - Sørensen, Mette
AU - Schmidt, Jesper Hvass
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Objective: To introduce and document the recently established HESD (Hearing Examinations in Southern Denmark) database, including the necessary data preprocessing steps, and to describe the hearing loss (HL) characteristics of the study sample. Design: Clinical auditory information has been collected for approximately 20 years in the state-funded clinics of the Region of Southern Denmark. We reviewed these data and conducted extensive preprocessing through data selection, integration, cleaning, transformation, and classification. HL profiling was then assessed in terms of severity, asymmetry, configuration, site of lesion, and audiogram shape. Study sample: The final number of complete audiograms available in the HESD database was 271,556, corresponding to detailed hearing information for 143,793 adults. Results: The distribution of HL characteristics differed significantly (p < 0.001) between men and women for all categories analysed. Clear differences were observed for asymmetry and audiogram configuration. However, both men and women had higher prevalence of unilateral, moderate, and sensorineural HL. Conclusions: This work highlights the potential of the HESD database as a source of audiology-related epidemiological data. It can be used to evaluate the distribution of HL characteristics and also to investigate risk factors for HL and the associations between HL and other health outcomes.
AB - Objective: To introduce and document the recently established HESD (Hearing Examinations in Southern Denmark) database, including the necessary data preprocessing steps, and to describe the hearing loss (HL) characteristics of the study sample. Design: Clinical auditory information has been collected for approximately 20 years in the state-funded clinics of the Region of Southern Denmark. We reviewed these data and conducted extensive preprocessing through data selection, integration, cleaning, transformation, and classification. HL profiling was then assessed in terms of severity, asymmetry, configuration, site of lesion, and audiogram shape. Study sample: The final number of complete audiograms available in the HESD database was 271,556, corresponding to detailed hearing information for 143,793 adults. Results: The distribution of HL characteristics differed significantly (p < 0.001) between men and women for all categories analysed. Clear differences were observed for asymmetry and audiogram configuration. However, both men and women had higher prevalence of unilateral, moderate, and sensorineural HL. Conclusions: This work highlights the potential of the HESD database as a source of audiology-related epidemiological data. It can be used to evaluate the distribution of HL characteristics and also to investigate risk factors for HL and the associations between HL and other health outcomes.
KW - audiogram
KW - characterisation
KW - database
KW - epidemiology
KW - Hearing loss
KW - prevalence
U2 - 10.1080/14992027.2020.1831702
DO - 10.1080/14992027.2020.1831702
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33074773
AN - SCOPUS:85092761950
SN - 1499-2027
VL - 60
SP - 300
EP - 311
JO - International Journal of Audiology
JF - International Journal of Audiology
IS - 4
ER -