Worldwide Prevalence of Hearing Loss Among Smartphone Users: Cross-Sectional Study Using a Mobile-Based App

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Audiology
• Public Health

Background:

• Adult hearing loss is influenced by aging, noise exposure, ototoxic drugs, genetics, and healthcare access.
• Variations in these risk factors contribute to differing hearing loss prevalence globally.
• Mobile applications offer a cost-effective method for large-scale hearing loss screening.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a global assessment of hearing loss prevalence differences among mobile device users.
• To compare hearing loss rates across various countries using smartphone-based testing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the free Android mobile app 'Hearing Test' for audiometric assessments.
• Included 116,733 tests from 212 countries, with user-provided age and IP-based location.
• Defined hearing loss as an average threshold above 25 dB HL at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better ear.

Main Results:

• A total of 15.6% of participants exhibited hearing loss.
• Significant international variations in prevalence were observed (P<.001).
• Highest prevalence (>28%) in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India; lowest (<11%) in Taiwan, Finland, and South Korea.

Conclusions:

• Mobile device-based hearing tests align with existing global hearing loss data.
• Standardized mobile recruitment simplifies cross-country prevalence comparisons.
• Smartphone audiometry is a viable tool for large-scale epidemiological studies.