Scholars@Duke
Sherri L Smith

Sherri L Smith

Associate Professor of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences
Communication Sciences
sherri.smith@duke.edu
DUMC 3887, Durham 27710
164 Baker House, Durham 27710

Selected Publications

Guideline Adherence to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Treatment and Management in Primary Care.

Journal Article Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · October 2023 OBJECTIVE: To determine adherence to the 2017 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) guidelines for the management and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in primary care (PC) and compare whether key recomme ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Pragmatic Clinical Trial of Hearing Screening in Primary Care Clinics: Effect of Setting and Provider Encouragement.

Journal Article Ear Hear · August 21, 2023 OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age. Untreated hearing loss is associated with poorer communication abilities and negative health consequences, such as increased risk of dementia, increased odds of falling, and depression. Nonethe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Between Hearing Handicap and Life-Space Mobility in a Patient Population.

Journal Article American journal of audiology · June 2023 PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between self-reported hearing handicap and life-space mobility utilizing the Life-Space Questionnaire (LSQ). Life-space mobility reflects how an individual moves through their daily ... Full text Open Access Cite

Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Inhibition during a Speech-in-Noise Task in Older Listeners.

Journal Article Semin Hear · May 2023 The goal of this study was to examine the effect of hearing loss on theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power measures of performance monitoring and cognitive inhibition, respectively, during a speech-in-noise task. It was hypothesized t ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of hearing loss on trajectories of depressive symptoms in married couples.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · March 2023 Hearing loss is a prevalent chronic stressor among older adults and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The life course principle of linked lives highlights that an individual's stressors can impact the health and well-being of others; how ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Controlling for Lexical Factors in the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure.

Journal Article Ear Hear · September 2022 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to confirm that lexical factors associated with the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) items have minimal impact WARRM scores. As the WARRM test was designed to minimize the impact of lexical factors ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of Effortful Word Recognition on Supportive Neural Systems Measured by Alpha and Theta Power.

Journal Article Ear Hear · September 2022 OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to use theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power and self-report measures to examine performance monitoring, cognitive inhibition, and perceived effort required for speech understanding in noise. It ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pragmatic clinical trial of hearing screening in primary care clinics: cost-effectiveness of hearing screening.

Journal Article Cost Eff Resour Alloc · June 25, 2022 BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is a high prevalence condition among older adults, is associated with higher-than-average risk for poor health outcomes and quality of life, and is a public health concern to individuals, families, communities, professionals, gover ... Full text Link to item Cite

How to Document Scientific and Clinical Impact of Research: Six Steps to Success

Journal Article Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups · June 13, 2022 Purpose:The purpose of this article was to provide a brief tutorial about impact metrics and how to use these metrics to document scientific impact. In addition, examples are provided tha ... Full text Cite

Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls and Falls-Related Injury: Results From the Health and Retirement Study.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: Falls are considered a significant public health issue and falls risk increases with age. There are many age-related physiologic changes that occur that increase postural instability and the risk for falls (i.e., age-related sensory declines in ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A Systematic Review on the Association Between Vestibular Dysfunction and Balance Performance in Children With Hearing Loss.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to understand the functional impact of vestibular dysfunction on balance control in children with hearing loss. The vestibular system is an important contributor to maintaining balance. In adults, vestibular dysf ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Association Between Hearing Loss and Surgical Complications in Older Adults.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: In this study, we sought to evaluate whether older patients with hearing loss who underwent surgery were at greater risk of postsurgical complications, increased inpatient length-of-stay (LOS), and hospital readmission. DESIGN: This was a retro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-reported hearing loss, hearing aid use, and cognitive function among U.S. older adults.

Journal Article Int J Popul Stud · 2022 There has been increasing attention to the role of hearing loss as a potentially modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. However, more nationally-representative studies are needed to understand the co-occurring changes in hear ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Response to Powell et al., "Do Hearing Aids Prevent Falls? Commentary on Study From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey".

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 This letter serves to respond to Powell et al.'s (2021) letter to the editor regarding our recent publication, "Preliminary Evidence on the Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls Risk in Individuals With Self-Reported Hearing Loss." In our letter, we respond t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Comparison of Falls and Dizziness Handicap by Vestibular Diagnosis.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 PURPOSE: There is a paucity of data that directly compares the falls rate and dizziness handicap of different vestibular diagnoses. The purpose of this study is to compare the falls rate and dizziness handicap of common vestibular diagnoses encountered amo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Test-Retest Reliability of the Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability and the minimum detectable change (MDC) scores of the Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (LSEQ). METHOD: A total of 77 older adults who were experienced hearing aid users we ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is silence golden… In this context, not so much.

Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · November 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

Vestibular Dysfunction and Gross Motor Milestone Acquisition in Children With Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · October 2021 OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of vestibular dysfunction on gross motor development in children with hearing loss. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science (Clarivate), and the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Liter ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preliminary Evidence on the Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls Risk in Individuals With Self-Reported Hearing Loss.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · June 14, 2021 Purpose Falls are considered a significant public health issue, and hearing loss has been shown to be an independent risk factor for falls. The primary objective of this study was to determine if hearing aid use modified (reduced) the association. We hypot ... Full text Link to item Cite

Guideline Adherence to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo Treatment and Management in Primary Care.

Journal Article Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · October 2023 OBJECTIVE: To determine adherence to the 2017 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) guidelines for the management and treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) in primary care (PC) and compare whether key recomme ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Pragmatic Clinical Trial of Hearing Screening in Primary Care Clinics: Effect of Setting and Provider Encouragement.

Journal Article Ear Hear · August 21, 2023 OBJECTIVES: The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age. Untreated hearing loss is associated with poorer communication abilities and negative health consequences, such as increased risk of dementia, increased odds of falling, and depression. Nonethe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Between Hearing Handicap and Life-Space Mobility in a Patient Population.

Journal Article American journal of audiology · June 2023 PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between self-reported hearing handicap and life-space mobility utilizing the Life-Space Questionnaire (LSQ). Life-space mobility reflects how an individual moves through their daily ... Full text Open Access Cite

Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Inhibition during a Speech-in-Noise Task in Older Listeners.

Journal Article Semin Hear · May 2023 The goal of this study was to examine the effect of hearing loss on theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power measures of performance monitoring and cognitive inhibition, respectively, during a speech-in-noise task. It was hypothesized t ... Full text Link to item Cite

The impact of hearing loss on trajectories of depressive symptoms in married couples.

Journal Article Soc Sci Med · March 2023 Hearing loss is a prevalent chronic stressor among older adults and is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The life course principle of linked lives highlights that an individual's stressors can impact the health and well-being of others; how ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Controlling for Lexical Factors in the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure.

Journal Article Ear Hear · September 2022 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to confirm that lexical factors associated with the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) items have minimal impact WARRM scores. As the WARRM test was designed to minimize the impact of lexical factors ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of Effortful Word Recognition on Supportive Neural Systems Measured by Alpha and Theta Power.

Journal Article Ear Hear · September 2022 OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to use theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power and self-report measures to examine performance monitoring, cognitive inhibition, and perceived effort required for speech understanding in noise. It ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pragmatic clinical trial of hearing screening in primary care clinics: cost-effectiveness of hearing screening.

Journal Article Cost Eff Resour Alloc · June 25, 2022 BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is a high prevalence condition among older adults, is associated with higher-than-average risk for poor health outcomes and quality of life, and is a public health concern to individuals, families, communities, professionals, gover ... Full text Link to item Cite

How to Document Scientific and Clinical Impact of Research: Six Steps to Success

Journal Article Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups · June 13, 2022 Purpose:The purpose of this article was to provide a brief tutorial about impact metrics and how to use these metrics to document scientific impact. In addition, examples are provided tha ... Full text Cite

Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls and Falls-Related Injury: Results From the Health and Retirement Study.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: Falls are considered a significant public health issue and falls risk increases with age. There are many age-related physiologic changes that occur that increase postural instability and the risk for falls (i.e., age-related sensory declines in ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A Systematic Review on the Association Between Vestibular Dysfunction and Balance Performance in Children With Hearing Loss.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to understand the functional impact of vestibular dysfunction on balance control in children with hearing loss. The vestibular system is an important contributor to maintaining balance. In adults, vestibular dysf ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Association Between Hearing Loss and Surgical Complications in Older Adults.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2022 OBJECTIVES: In this study, we sought to evaluate whether older patients with hearing loss who underwent surgery were at greater risk of postsurgical complications, increased inpatient length-of-stay (LOS), and hospital readmission. DESIGN: This was a retro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-reported hearing loss, hearing aid use, and cognitive function among U.S. older adults.

Journal Article Int J Popul Stud · 2022 There has been increasing attention to the role of hearing loss as a potentially modifiable risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. However, more nationally-representative studies are needed to understand the co-occurring changes in hear ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Response to Powell et al., "Do Hearing Aids Prevent Falls? Commentary on Study From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey".

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 This letter serves to respond to Powell et al.'s (2021) letter to the editor regarding our recent publication, "Preliminary Evidence on the Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls Risk in Individuals With Self-Reported Hearing Loss." In our letter, we respond t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Comparison of Falls and Dizziness Handicap by Vestibular Diagnosis.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 PURPOSE: There is a paucity of data that directly compares the falls rate and dizziness handicap of different vestibular diagnoses. The purpose of this study is to compare the falls rate and dizziness handicap of common vestibular diagnoses encountered amo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Test-Retest Reliability of the Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 9, 2021 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the test-retest reliability and the minimum detectable change (MDC) scores of the Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (LSEQ). METHOD: A total of 77 older adults who were experienced hearing aid users we ... Full text Link to item Cite

Is silence golden… In this context, not so much.

Journal Article J Am Geriatr Soc · November 2021 Full text Link to item Cite

Vestibular Dysfunction and Gross Motor Milestone Acquisition in Children With Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review.

Journal Article Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg · October 2021 OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of vestibular dysfunction on gross motor development in children with hearing loss. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase (Elsevier), Web of Science (Clarivate), and the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Liter ... Full text Link to item Cite

Preliminary Evidence on the Impact of Hearing Aid Use on Falls Risk in Individuals With Self-Reported Hearing Loss.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · June 14, 2021 Purpose Falls are considered a significant public health issue, and hearing loss has been shown to be an independent risk factor for falls. The primary objective of this study was to determine if hearing aid use modified (reduced) the association. We hypot ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hearing Loss

Chapter · 2021 Full text Cite

Comparative implementation-effectiveness of three strategies to perform hearing screening among older adults in primary care clinics: study design and protocol.

Journal Article BMC Geriatr · May 11, 2020 BACKGROUND: The burden of hearing loss among older adults could be mitigated with appropriate care. This study compares implementation of three hearing screening strategies in primary care, and examines the reliability and validity of patient self-assessme ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of Abbreviated Versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure.

Journal Article Ear Hear · April 22, 2020 OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate abbreviated versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) as part of an iterative process in the development of a feasible test for potential future clinical use. DE ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of Abbreviated Versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2020 OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate abbreviated versions of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) as part of an iterative process in the development of a feasible test for potential future clinical use. DE ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of modality and linguistic materials on memory in younger and older adults

Journal Article Canadian Acoustics - Acoustique Canadienne · January 1, 2019 Audiologists can test memory with auditory or visual stimuli. Visual tests are immune to hearing loss, whereas auditory tests are ecologically relevant. In a previous study, an auditory test was preferred to a visual test because it yielded a greater range ... Cite

Examination of Individual Differences in Outcomes From a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Comparing Formal and Informal Individual Auditory Training Programs.

Journal Article J Speech Lang Hear Res · August 1, 2016 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if patient characteristics or clinical variables could predict who benefits from individual auditory training. METHOD: A retrospective series of analyses were performed using a data set from a large, mult ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of Vocal Emotion on Memory in Younger and Older Adults.

Journal Article Exp Aging Res · 2016 BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Emotional content can enhance memory for visual stimuli, and older adults often perform better if stimuli portray positive emotion. Vocal emotion can enhance the accuracy of word repetition in noise when vocal prosody portrays att ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Randomized Control Trial: Supplementing Hearing Aid Use with Listening and Communication Enhancement (LACE) Auditory Training.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2016 OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of the Listening and Communication Enhancement (LACE) program as a supplement to standard-of-care hearing aid intervention in a Veteran population. DESIGN: A multisite randomized controlled trial was conducted to com ... Full text Link to item Cite

Tinnitus Self-Efficacy and Other Tinnitus Self-Report Variables in Patients With and Without Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2016 OBJECTIVE: Individuals with tinnitus and co-occurring psychological conditions typically rate their tinnitus as more disturbing than individuals without such comorbidities. Little is known about how tinnitus self-efficacy, or the confidence that individual ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure: A Working Memory Test for Use in Rehabilitative Audiology.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2016 OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to develop the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM) and to conduct the inaugural evaluation of the performance of younger adults with normal hearing, older adults with normal to near-normal hearing, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Do negative views of aging influence memory and auditory performance through self-perceived abilities?

Journal Article Psychol Aging · December 2015 Memory and hearing are critical domains that interact during older adults' daily communication and social encounters. To develop a more comprehensive picture of how aging influences performance in these domains, the roles of social variables such as views ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of hearing and vision impairments on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Journal Article Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn · 2015 Many standardized measures of cognition include items that must be seen or heard. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to overlook the possible effects of sensory impairment(s) on test scores. In the current study, we investigated whether sensory impairments c ... Full text Link to item Cite

Associations between speech understanding and auditory and visual tests of verbal working memory: effects of linguistic complexity, task, age, and hearing loss.

Journal Article Front Psychol · 2015 Listeners with hearing loss commonly report having difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments. Their difficulties could be due to auditory and cognitive processing problems. Performance on speech-in-noise tests has been correlated ... Full text Link to item Cite

Learning to listen again: the role of compliance in auditory training for adults with hearing loss.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · December 2013 PURPOSE: To examine the role of compliance in the outcomes of computer-based auditory training with the Listening and Communication Enhancement (LACE) program in Veterans using hearing aids. METHOD: The authors examined available LACE training data for 5 t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Style preference survey: a report on the psychometric properties and a cross-validation experiment.

Journal Article J Am Acad Audiol · February 2013 BACKGROUND: Several self-report measures exist that target different aspects of outcomes for hearing aid use. Currently, no comprehensive questionnaire specifically assesses factors that may be important for differentiating outcomes pertaining to hearing a ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Revised Speech Perception in Noise Test (R-SPIN) in a multiple signal-to-noise ratio paradigm.

Journal Article J Am Acad Audiol · September 2012 BACKGROUND: The Revised Speech Perception in Noise Test (R-SPIN; Bilger, 1984b) is composed of 200 target words distributed as the last words in 200 low-predictability (LP) and 200 high-predictability (HP) sentences. Four list pairs, each consisting of two ... Full text Link to item Cite

Word recognition for temporally and spectrally distorted materials: the effects of age and hearing loss.

Journal Article Ear Hear · 2012 OBJECTIVES: The purpose of Experiment 1 was to measure word recognition in younger adults with normal hearing when speech or babble was temporally or spectrally distorted. In Experiment 2, older listeners with near-normal hearing and with hearing loss (for ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of the Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (LSEQ).

Journal Article Int J Audiol · June 2011 OBJECTIVE: Listening self-efficacy refers to the beliefs, or confidence, that listeners have in their capability to successfully listen in specific situations, which may influence audiologic rehabilitation outcomes. The objective of this study was to devel ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of the self-efficacy for tinnitus management questionnaire.

Journal Article J Am Acad Audiol · 2011 BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy refers to the beliefs (i.e., confidence) individuals have in their capabilities to perform skills needed to accomplish a specific goal or behavior. Research in the treatment of various health conditions such as chronic pain, balan ... Full text Link to item Cite

Longitudinal changes in hearing sensitivity among men: the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study.

Journal Article J Acoust Soc Am · October 2010 Over 35 years (1962-1996), participants of the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (NAS), a study of healthy aging in men, completed up to eight audiometric assessments. This report describes the age-related hearing trajectories of screened men (n=953) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Evaluation of the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids in a veteran sample.

Journal Article J Am Acad Audiol · June 2009 BACKGROUND: The International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) was developed as a global hearing aid outcome measure targeting seven outcome domains. The published norms were based on a private-pay sample who were fitted with analog hearing aids ... Full text Link to item Cite

Prevalence and characteristics of dual sensory impairment (hearing and vision) in a veteran population.

Journal Article J Rehabil Res Dev · 2008 With the increasing aging population, the number of veterans presenting with dual sensory impairment (DSI) (vision and hearing impairments) will increase. This study determined the prevalence and clinical characteristics of DSI in a veteran population rece ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of a hearing aid self-efficacy questionnaire.

Journal Article Int J Audiol · December 2007 Discontinued hearing-aid use is caused by a number of factors, most of which may lead to low hearing-aid self-efficacy (i.e. low confidence in one's ability to B a successful hearing-aid user). This paper describes the development of the Measure of Audiolo ... Full text Link to item Cite

An Evaluation of the BKB-SIN, HINT, QuickSIN, and WIN Materials on Listeners With Normal Hearing and Listeners With Hearing Loss.

Journal Article J Speech Lang Hear Res · August 2007 PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine in listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss the within- and between-group differences obtained with 4 commonly available speech-in-noise protocols. METHOD: Recognition per ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hearing Aid Self-Efficacy of New and Experienced Hearing Aid Users

Journal Article Seminars in Hearing · November 2006 Full text Cite

The application of self-efficacy principles to audiologic rehabilitation: a tutorial.

Journal Article Am J Audiol · June 2006 PURPOSE: The purpose of this tutorial is to provide a comprehensive overview of the self-efficacy framework and its application to audiologic rehabilitation. METHOD: A literature review was conducted on self-efficacy and its relevance to successful interve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Intelligibility of sentences recorded from the uterus of a pregnant ewe and from the fetal inner ear.

Journal Article Audiol Neurootol · 2003 The intelligibility of sentences recorded from the uterus of a pregnant ewe and from the near-term fetal sheep inner ear was judged by 30 listeners. Sentences were presented to the ewe at 95 and 105 dB SPL while sequential recordings of sound with a hydrop ... Full text Link to item Cite