Awareness, attitudes and perceptions of students towards leisure noise in Durban, South Africa.

Background:  Young adults are exposed to high noise levels in leisure venues, which increases their risk of hearing loss, and can affect their quality of life.

Objectives:  The aim of this study was to describe the young adults' awareness, attitudes and perceptions towards leisure noise at a university in South Africa.

Method:  A descriptive cross-sectional study design with quantitative methods of data was considered for this study.

The validity of an isiZulu speech reception threshold test for use with adult isiZulu speakers.

Background: This study continued the development of an isiZulu speech reception threshold (zSRT) test for use with first language, adult speakers of isiZulu.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the convergent and concurrent validity of the zSRT test.

Methods: One hundred adult isiZulu first-language speakers with normal hearing and 76 first-language, adult isiZulu speakers with conductive or sensorineural hearing losses ranging from mild to severe were assessed on pure tone audiometry and a newly developed isiZulu SRT test.

The internal and external consistency of a speech reception threshold test for isiZulu speakers with normal hearing sensitivity.

 This study investigated reliability, particularly the internal and external consistency, of a new isiZulu speech reception threshold (SRT) test. Methods: To examine internal consistency, 21 adult isiZulu speakers with normal hearing sensitivity completed the SRT test using the first and second halves of the SRT wordlist in the same test session. To examine external consistency, a separate 23 adult isiZulu speakers with normal hearing sensitivity completed the SRT test, using the whole word list on two occasions 4 weeks apart.

First-language raters' opinions when validating word recordings for a newly developed speech reception threshold test.

 The purpose of this study was to consider the value of adding first-language speaker ratings to the process of validating word recordings for use in a new speech reception threshold (SRT) test in audiology. Previous studies had identified 28 word recordings as being suitable for use in a new SRT test. These word recordings had been shown to satisfy the linguistic criteria of familiarity, phonetic dissimilarity and tone, and the psychometric criterion of homogeneity of audibility.

The homogeneity of audibility and prosody of Zulu words for speech reception threshold (SRT) testing.

The aim of this investigation was to determine which of 58 preselected Zulu words developed by Panday et al. (2007) could be used for Speech Reception Threshold (SRT) testing. To realize this aim the homogeneity of audibility of 58 bisyllabic Zulu low tone verbs was measured, followed by an analysis of the prosodic features of the selected words.

Development of a Zulu speech reception threshold test for Zulu first language speakers in Kwa Zulu-Natal.

The measurement of speech reception threshold (SRT) is best evaluated in an individual's first language. The present study focused on the development of a Zulu SRT word list, according to adapted criteria for SRT in Zulu. The aim of this paper is to present the process involved in the development of the Zulu word list.