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Home-Based Hearing Test with Smartphone Applications-A Prospective Study
Lara Carvalho1, Jawad Abdulla, Inez Dale-Jones
1Otolaryngology Department, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford, UK.
Introduction:
Since the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the use of smartphone applications (Apps) in healthcare has become increasingly popular. Self-hearing test Apps are among those and are available on both Android and iOS platforms. We aimed to study the diagnostic accuracy of those Apps.
Methods:
Our study included 38 adult patients (20 males and 18 females; age 20-68 years, mean 46 years) attending the Audiovestibular Medicine Clinic at our center. We collected data prospectively from September 2020 until May 2021. The Apps we used were e-audiologia (EHT) for Android and Yuichi Sakashita (YSHT) for iOS. We compared the hearing thresholds from self-hearing assessment at home to those from conventional gold standard pure tone audiometry (PTA). We defined hearing loss as hearing thresholds exceeding 30-dB HL at one or 25-dB HL at more than one of the following frequencies: 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, or 50 dB at 4000 Hz.
Results:
The overall sensitivity was 100%, but the specificity was 76% for both Apps combined (74% for YSHT and 81% for EHT). There was a strong positive correlation between PTA and hearing App thresholds (Pearson's correlation, p < 0.001), and both demonstrated similar trends. The maximum mean difference in hearing thresholds between App-based hearing assessment and PTA was at 500 Hz (10.5-dB HL).
Conclusion:
EHT and YSHT Apps have a great potential for routine use for hearing screening and monitoring hearing disorders at various settings, including primary care, emergency otolaryngology clinics, nursing homes, and by the public.
