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. 2023 Sep;55(6):2838-2852.
doi: 10.3758/s13428-022-01933-1. Epub 2022 Aug 12.

Validation of a tablet-based assessment of auditory sensitivity for researchers

Kathryn Wiseman  1 , Jerry Slotkin  2 , Meredith Spratford  1 , Amberlee Haggerty  1 , Maggie Heusinkvelt  1 , Sandra Weintraub  3 , Richard Gershon  4 , Ryan McCreery  5
Affiliations

Validation of a tablet-based assessment of auditory sensitivity for researchers

Kathryn Wiseman et al. Behav Res Methods. 2023 Sep.

Abstract

Quantifying hearing acuity is increasingly important across a wide range of research areas in the behavioral and neurosciences. Scientists have relied on either self-reported hearing status or the availability of diagnostic hearing assessment in past studies. There remains a need for a valid and reliable assessment of auditory sensitivity that can provide estimates of the magnitude of hearing loss, if present, without requirements for professional audiologists, facilities, and equipment that are needed to conduct a diagnostic hearing assessment. The goal of this experiment was to validate the NIH Toolbox® Hearing Threshold Test (HTT), a tablet-based hearing assessment available via iPad application that uses consumer-grade headphones, on a clinical sample of children and adults with varying degrees of hearing acuity. Electroacoustic analysis of the hearing assessment application and headphones demonstrated acoustic outputs within established conformity standards for hearing assessment. Twenty-seven children and 63 adults participated in a standard diagnostic hearing assessment and the experimental tablet-based assessment. The results showed that thresholds from the tablet-based assessment were highly correlated with thresholds from the clinical hearing assessment (r = .83-.93) for children and adults for all frequencies and across a range of levels of hearing acuity. The HTT also met clinical test-retest reliability standards (Cronbach's α > .86). The tablet-based hearing assessment provides acceptable estimates of hearing levels for children and adults when diagnostic audiometric assessment capabilities are not available.

Keywords: Adults; Children; Hearing assessment; Hearing loss; NIH Toolbox; Tablet; iPad.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Relationship between thresholds measured via audiometer and the Hearing Threshold Test app
Note. ***p < .001; HTT = Hearing Threshold Test; thresholds from the HTT were repeated (i.e., two runs). HTT thresholds plotted here represent the closest thresholds (i.e., smallest difference) to the audiometer thresholds. The blue line represents the linear relationship between the variables. Individual thresholds are represented by gray points (circles for adults and triangles for children). Darker points indicate that multiple participants had the same thresholds.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Bland-Altman analysis of difference between Audiometer and HTT thresholds by frequency
Note. dB HL = Decibel Hearing Level; HTT = Hearing Threshold Test; X axis represents mean of the audiometer and HTT measurements, and the y axis is the difference between them. The three dotted lines represent the mean of the differences (center line) and 2 standard deviations above and below that. Points are scaled by number of occurrences of the value.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Relationship between repeated HTT thresholds (run 1 vs. run 2)
Note. ***p < .001; dB HL = Decibel Hearing Level; HTT = Hearing Threshold Test; The blue line represents the linear relationship between the variables. Individual thresholds are represented by gray points (circles for adults and triangles for children). Darker points indicate that multiple participants had the same thresholds.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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