Smartphone audiogram apps for home hearing assessment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Smartphone Apps in Assessment of Hearing at Home: A Validation and Feasibility Study
IRAS ID
278039
Contact name
Manohar Bance
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & the University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
Hearing loss affects approximately 360 million people worldwide (Löhler et al., 2019). It is a significant disability; associated with a negative psychosocial burden and high economic costs through losses in productivity. Early detection, and subsequent treatment, of hearing loss can negate these negative consequences.
The current gold standard for hearing loss screening is pure tone audiometry (PTA). However, this requires access to specialised medical equipment and trained staff. One way of overcoming this challenge is with automated threshold audiometry - where the patient self-determines their hearing threshold.
It has been suggested that smartphone applications may be able to utilise automated threshold audiometry to allow patients to perform self-administered screening or monitoring of hearing loss in their home environment. A review published in 2016 found 30 smartphone applications providing automated audiometry, with only 5 of these appearing in any form of validation study (Bright & Pallawela, 2016).
The objective of this study is to assess the validity and feasibility of using smartphone audiology applications for patient-delivered hearing assessment, with comparison to the gold standard of pure tone audiometry.
This will be a multicentre, prospective observational study. Eligible patients attending hospital for a pure tone audiogram will be identified, approached and consented within the otology and audiology clinics at participating hospitals.
Participants will be asked to download a named smartphone application onto their personal device which will provide automated threshold testing. Participants will be invited to use the app in a low ambient noise room.
The participant will then be invited to use the app at home, three times spread over the following seven days. The participant will return their results to investigators by a provided study email address. On receipt of the data, the participant will be invited to complete an online survey to feedback on their experience of using the application.REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/WM/0324
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion