TE and DP otoacoustic emission data from an Australian cross-sectional hearing study.

Objective: This paper presents a summary of otoacoustic emission (OAE) data collected as part of an Australian hearing health survey ( Carter, 2011 ; Williams et al, 2014 ) designed to: (1) examine the relationship between audiological indicators and participant characteristics, and (2) extract audiological data suitable for reference use.
Design: Cross-sectional cohort study. Distortion product (DP) OAE and transient evoked (TE) OAE measures.
Study Sample: Age range 11-35 years; N = 1386 participants (2672 test ears).
Results: Descriptive statistics for amplitude and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were calculated for 327 participants (589 test ears; age 13 to 32 years). DPOAE amplitudes down to the 25th percentile were > 0 dB SPL for test frequencies up to 6 kHz. TEOAE SNRs down to the 25th percentile were > 6 dB SPL up to 4 kHz.
Summary: This dataset can be used as a clinical reference for similar populations, providing that the same test parameters are used.
Conclusions: The clinical significance of OAE testing would be greater if agreed criteria were available. These data could be pooled with other datasets to build a substantial OAE database, similar to the existing international standards for pure-tone hearing threshold levels (HTLs) ( ISO, 2000 ).