A language-independent hearing screening self-test at school-entryVan den Borre, Elien (Avtor) Tufatulin, Gaziz (Avtor) Zupan, Lea (Avtor) Božanić Urbančič, Nina (Avtor) Lavie, Limor (Avtor) Holube, Inga (Avtor) Swarnalatha Nagaraj, Vinay (Avtor) Gurses, Emre (Avtor) hearing losschildrenSound Ear CheckThe usage of a tabletbased languageindependent selftest involving the recognition of ecological sounds in background noise, the Sound Ear Check, was investigated. The results of 692 children, aged between 5 and 9 years and 4 months, recruited in seven diferent countries, were used to analyze the validity and the cultural independence of test. Three diferent test procedures, namely a monaural adaptive procedure, a procedure presenting the sounds dichotically in diotic noise, and a procedure presenting all the sounds with a fxed signaltonoise ratio and a stopping rule were studied. Results showed high sensitivity and specifcity of all three procedures to detect conductive, sensorineural and mixed hearing loss> 30 dB HL. Additionally, the data collected from diferent countries were consistent, and there were no clinically relevant diferences observed between countries. Therefore, the Sound Ear Check can ofer an international hearing screening test for young children at school entry, solving the current lack of hearing screening services on a global scale.20242026-01-15 14:08:19Neznano25306UDK: 616.21ISSN pri članku: 2045-2322DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53026-yCOBISS_ID: 221428227sl