2026/01/23 by Samantha Harkus, Meagan Ward, Jessma Nash +9 · 1 voice
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Ear Surgery and Otitis Media #Hearing Impairment and Communication #Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/14992027.2025.2606203
openalex publication_date 2026/01/23 · openalex created_date 2026/01/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
Objective We aimed to establish how accurately the Parent-evaluated Listening and Understanding Measure (PLUM) identifies longer-term otitis media (OM)-related hearing status in young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.Design Retrospective review of clinical data, designed with Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and non-Indigenous researchers and clinicians.Study sample De-identified audiological and demographic information gathered during 15,444 appointments with 6,716 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 7 years and younger.Results PLUM effectively distinguishes persistent, OM-related hearing loss requiring specialist referral (>30 dB HL better ear for >3 months) from transient and/or milder loss. Eighty-two percent of children meeting these referral criteria were “not yet on track”, compared to 26% with comparable, but transient, loss. PLUM demonstrated strong performance: 82.4% sensitivity, 91.2% specificity, 98.6% negative predictive value, and 90.5% accuracy. Children “not yet on track” had 46 times higher odds of meeting hearing referral-level criteria (OR = 45.73, 95% CI: 12.60–165.93).Conclusions PLUM draws on parent/caregiver observations to help practitioners identify – or exclude – persistent OM-related hearing loss >30 dB HL, early in children’s lives. A single assessment provides insight into longer-term hearing status, complementing point-in-time measures. This is the first accuracy evidence for a listening skills checklist using longer-term hearing as reference standard.