Evaluation Of Accuracy And Reliability Of Commercially Available Audiometry Applications For Assessment Of Hearing Acuity

Abstract

Objectives: To determine diagnostic accuracy of audiometry mobile application to detect hearing loss keeping pure tone audiometry as gold standard.

Study Design: Prospective validation study.

Place and Duration of Study: “Combined Military Hospital, Lahore from July 2024 to December 2024”.

Methodology: Eighty nine patients who presented at ENT outdoor department with hearing difficulty were included in the study. Initial assessment for hearing loss was made using a commercially available android mobile phone application Hearing test pro ® version 2.4. After this patients underwent pure tone audiometry to diagnose hearing loss. Data was analyzed using SPSS v22.00.

Results: Median age was 54.00 (67.00 – 29.00) years. There were 64 (71.91%) males and 25 (38.09%) were females. Specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, negative predictive value and positive predictive value of audiometry application to diagnose hearing loss with pure tone audiometry being the gold standard were 93.75%, 95.89%, 95.51%, 83.33% and 98.59%, respectively.

Conclusion: Commercially available audiometry applications are useful and reliable tools to detect presence of hearing loss.