Validity of hearTest Smartphone-Based Audiometry for Hearing Screening in Workers Exposed to Noise
Luma Cordeiro Rodrigues1, Silvia Ferrite2,3, Ana Paula Corona1,3
1Postgraduate Programme in Environmental Health and Work, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.
Purpose:
This article investigates the validity of a smartphone-based audiometry for hearing screening to identify hearing loss in workers exposed to noise.
Research Design:
This is a validation study comparing hearing screening with the hearTest to conventional audiometry. The study population included all workers who attended the Brazilian Social Service of Industry to undergo periodic examinations. Sensitivity, specificity, the Youden index, and positive (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) for hearing screening obtained by the hearTest were estimated according to three definitions of hearing loss: any threshold greater than 25 dB hearing level (HL), the mean auditory thresholds for 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz greater than 25 dB HL, and the mean thresholds for 3, 4, and 6 kHz greater than 25 dB HL. Note that 95% confidence intervals were calculated for all measurements.
Results:
A total of 232 workers participated in the study. Hearing screening with the hearTest presented good sensitivity (93.8%), specificity (83.9%), and Youden index (77.7%) values, a NPV (97.2%), and a low PPV (69.0%) for the identification of hearing loss defined as any auditory threshold greater than 25 dB HL. For the other definitions of hearing loss, we observed high specificity, PPV and NPV, as well as low sensitivity and Youden index.
Conclusion:
The hearTest is an accurate hearing screening tool to identify hearing loss in workers exposed to noise, including those with noise-induced hearing loss, although it does not replace conventional audiometry.
