Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment
Hearing impairment is a frequent human sensory impairment. It was estimated that over 50% of those aged >75 years experience hearing impairment in the United States. Several hearing impairment–related factors are detectable through screening; thus, further deterioration can be avoided. Early iden...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Journal of Personalized Medicine |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/10/1035 |
| _version_ | 1797514126774239232 |
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| author | Lok-Yee Joyce Li Shin-Yi Wang Jinn-Moon Yang Chih-Jou Chen Cheng-Yu Tsai Lucas Yee-Yan Wu Te-Fang Wu Cheng-Jung Wu |
| author_facet | Lok-Yee Joyce Li Shin-Yi Wang Jinn-Moon Yang Chih-Jou Chen Cheng-Yu Tsai Lucas Yee-Yan Wu Te-Fang Wu Cheng-Jung Wu |
| author_sort | Lok-Yee Joyce Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Hearing impairment is a frequent human sensory impairment. It was estimated that over 50% of those aged >75 years experience hearing impairment in the United States. Several hearing impairment–related factors are detectable through screening; thus, further deterioration can be avoided. Early identification of hearing impairment is the key to effective management. However, hearing screening resources are scarce or inaccessible, underlining the importance of developing user-friendly mobile health care systems for universal hearing screening. Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) act as platforms for personalized hearing screening to evaluate an individual’s risk of developing hearing impairment. We aimed to evaluate and compare the accuracy of smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests with that of standard air conduction and bone conduction pure-tone audiometry tests. Moreover, we evaluated the use of smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests in conductive hearing loss diagnosis. We recruited 103 patients (206 ears) from an otology clinic. All patients were aged ≥20 years. Patients who were diagnosed with active otorrhea was excluded. Moderate hearing impairment was defined as hearing loss with mean hearing thresholds >40 dB. All patients underwent four hearing tests performed by a board-certified audiologist: a smartphone-based air conduction audiometry self-test, smartphone-based bone conduction audiometry self-test, standard air-conduction pure-tone audiometry, and standard bone conduction pure-tone audiometry. We compared and analyzed the results of the smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests with those of the standard air conduction and bone conduction pure-tone audiometry tests. The sensitivity of the smartphone-based air conduction audiometry self-test was 0.80 (95% confidence interval CI = 0.71–0.88) and its specificity was 0.84 (95% CI = 0.76–0.90), respectively. The sensitivity of the smartphone-based bone conduction audiometry self-test was 0.64 (95% CI = 0.53–0.75) and its specificity was 0.71 (95% CI = 0.62–0.78). Among all the ears, 24 were diagnosed with conductive hearing loss. The smartphone-based audiometry self-tests correctly diagnosed conductive hearing loss in 17 of those ears. The personalized smartphone-based audiometry self-tests correctly diagnosed hearing loss with high sensitivity and high specificity, and they can be a reliable screening test to rule out moderate hearing impairment among the population. It provided patients with moderate hearing impairment with personalized strategies for symptomatic control and facilitated individual case management for medical practitioners. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:27:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b672c01a08a241ac9e25c1b46e935ff7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2075-4426 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T06:27:13Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Personalized Medicine |
| spelling | doaj.art-b672c01a08a241ac9e25c1b46e935ff72023-11-22T18:49:38ZengMDPI AGJournal of Personalized Medicine2075-44262021-10-011110103510.3390/jpm11101035Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing ImpairmentLok-Yee Joyce Li0Shin-Yi Wang1Jinn-Moon Yang2Chih-Jou Chen3Cheng-Yu Tsai4Lucas Yee-Yan Wu5Te-Fang Wu6Cheng-Jung Wu7Department of Medicine, Shin Kong Wu-Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei 111, TaiwanDepartment of Nursing, National Taiwan University Hospital, Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu 300, TaiwanInstitute of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 300, TaiwanMaster Program in School of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, TaiwanDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BT, UKSchool of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, TaiwanDepartment of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung 813, TaiwanSchool of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 110, TaiwanHearing impairment is a frequent human sensory impairment. It was estimated that over 50% of those aged >75 years experience hearing impairment in the United States. Several hearing impairment–related factors are detectable through screening; thus, further deterioration can be avoided. Early identification of hearing impairment is the key to effective management. However, hearing screening resources are scarce or inaccessible, underlining the importance of developing user-friendly mobile health care systems for universal hearing screening. Mobile health (mHealth) applications (apps) act as platforms for personalized hearing screening to evaluate an individual’s risk of developing hearing impairment. We aimed to evaluate and compare the accuracy of smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests with that of standard air conduction and bone conduction pure-tone audiometry tests. Moreover, we evaluated the use of smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests in conductive hearing loss diagnosis. We recruited 103 patients (206 ears) from an otology clinic. All patients were aged ≥20 years. Patients who were diagnosed with active otorrhea was excluded. Moderate hearing impairment was defined as hearing loss with mean hearing thresholds >40 dB. All patients underwent four hearing tests performed by a board-certified audiologist: a smartphone-based air conduction audiometry self-test, smartphone-based bone conduction audiometry self-test, standard air-conduction pure-tone audiometry, and standard bone conduction pure-tone audiometry. We compared and analyzed the results of the smartphone-based air conduction and bone conduction audiometry self-tests with those of the standard air conduction and bone conduction pure-tone audiometry tests. The sensitivity of the smartphone-based air conduction audiometry self-test was 0.80 (95% confidence interval CI = 0.71–0.88) and its specificity was 0.84 (95% CI = 0.76–0.90), respectively. The sensitivity of the smartphone-based bone conduction audiometry self-test was 0.64 (95% CI = 0.53–0.75) and its specificity was 0.71 (95% CI = 0.62–0.78). Among all the ears, 24 were diagnosed with conductive hearing loss. The smartphone-based audiometry self-tests correctly diagnosed conductive hearing loss in 17 of those ears. The personalized smartphone-based audiometry self-tests correctly diagnosed hearing loss with high sensitivity and high specificity, and they can be a reliable screening test to rule out moderate hearing impairment among the population. It provided patients with moderate hearing impairment with personalized strategies for symptomatic control and facilitated individual case management for medical practitioners.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/10/1035hearing impairmentconductive hearing losssmartphoneaudiometrymobile health |
| spellingShingle | Lok-Yee Joyce Li Shin-Yi Wang Jinn-Moon Yang Chih-Jou Chen Cheng-Yu Tsai Lucas Yee-Yan Wu Te-Fang Wu Cheng-Jung Wu Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment Journal of Personalized Medicine hearing impairment conductive hearing loss smartphone audiometry mobile health |
| title | Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment |
| title_full | Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment |
| title_fullStr | Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment |
| title_short | Validation of a Personalized Hearing Screening Mobile Health Application for Persons with Moderate Hearing Impairment |
| title_sort | validation of a personalized hearing screening mobile health application for persons with moderate hearing impairment |
| topic | hearing impairment conductive hearing loss smartphone audiometry mobile health |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4426/11/10/1035 |
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