Evaluating the Reliability of 'AudiClick': A Click-Based Mobile App for Hearing Loss.

INTRODUCTION

To develop and validate a click-based mobile "Audiclick" app employing click noises for hearing assessments.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This prospective comparative study compares the "AudiClick" app as a hearing screening tool to pure tone audiometry. Participants listened to sounds through wired earbud headphones that were connected to an Android or iOS device.

RESULTS

The study involved 110 participants aged between 18 to 80 years old. All degrees of hearing loss severity corresponds to pure tone average (p < 0.01) results. The app was also found to be effective at identifying hearing loss (80-99% sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy). Test-retest reliability had also shown excellent ICC scores of 0.93.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that a mobile app using click sounds can be as efficient as pure tone audiometry for field screenings, while being more cost-effective and easier to develop.