Evaluation of Hearing Thresholds by Using a Mobile Application in Children with Otitis Media with Effusion

Abstract

Objective: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is the most common cause of hearing loss in children. Early diagnosis is important as hearing loss affects speech and language development in children. The aim of this study was to compare conventional audiometry with the Android mobile operating system application Hearing Test TM in the evaluation of hearing thresholds in children with OME and to determine the accuracy and reliability of the mobile application. Design and Study Sample: Fifty school-age children aged between 5 and 15 years with OME in at least 1 ear were included in the study. First, hearing thresholds were obtained by conventional audiometric methods and the degree of hearing loss was determined. Then, the hearing thresholds of the patients were measured using the smartphone-based Hearing Test TM application. The data were compared using Cohen's kappa analysis. Results: OME was detected in 88 ears. There was no statistically significant correlation between the hearing threshold results obtained with the mobile phone and conventional audiometry at 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 Hz. Conclusion: The Android mobile phone application Hearing Test TM (version 1.1.3) is not an appropriate screening test to detect hearing loss in children with OME.

Neutrophil‐lymphocyte and platelet‐lymphocyte ratios in otitis media with effusion in children: Diagnostic role and audiologic correlations

“…Mild and moderate hearing loss were observed because of OME, and patients with mild hearing loss were more common than those with moderate hearing loss 2 . A study performed the hearing tests in 88 ears with OME revealed normal hearing in 41 ears, mild hearing loss in 40 ears and moderate hearing loss in 7 ears 33 . A recent study reported that the mean overall pure tone audiometry was 29 dB HL in 168 ears with hearing loss because of OME 34 .…”

“…2 A study performed the hearing tests in 88 ears with OME revealed normal hearing in 41 ears, mild hearing loss in 40 ears and moderate hearing loss in 7 ears. 33 A recent study reported that the mean overall pure tone audiometry was 29 dB HL in 168 ears with hearing loss because of OME. 34 In our study, the patients' hearing loss classification ranged from slight to moderate, and the number of patients with mild hearing loss was higher.…”

Diagnostic Accuracy of Smartphone-Based Audiometry for Hearing Loss Detection: Meta-analysis

“…Of the 25 studies, 21 were prospective [10,21,22,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52], 1 was retrospective [53], and the remaining 3 studies did not report the study design [23,54,55]. In all, 20 studies used PTA as the index test [10,21,22,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52]54], whereas the remaining 5 studies applied a speech recognition test (SRT) as the index test [23,43,47,53,55]. A total of 4 studies ...…”

“…In all, 20 studies used PTA as the index test [10,21,22,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][44][45][46][48][49][50][51][52]54], whereas the remaining 5 studies applied a speech recognition test (SRT) as the index test [23,43,47,53,55]. A total of 4 studies enrolled elderly participants [10,36,37,39], whereas 7 studies included children [21][22][23]38,41,49,55], and 13 studies enrolled adult participants [29,40,[42][43][44]46,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. The remaining study did not report the age of the study population…”

“…A total of 15 studies used headphones for testing [10,21,23,38,41-47,49,50,52,54], 9 studies used earphones for the examination [22,29,36,37,39,40,48,53,55], and 1 study did not mention the equipment used[51]. In all, 6 studies conducted the examination in a soundproof booth[10,[49][50][51]53,55], 18 studies did not use a soundproof booth to conduct the examination[21][22][23]29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]52,54]…”