Development and evaluation of an audiology app for iPhone/iPad mobile devices

Abstract

Conclusion: The application described in this study appears to be accurate and valid, thus allowing calculation of a hearing handicap and assessment of the pure-tone air conduction threshold with iPhone/iPad devices. Objective: To develop and evaluate a newly developed professional, computer-based hearing handicap calculator and a manual hearing sensitivity assessment test for the iPhone and iPad (AudCal). Methods: Multi-center prospective non-randomized validation study. One hundred and ten consecutive adult participants underwent two hearing evaluations, a standard audiometry and a pure-tone air conduction test using AudCal with an iOS device. The hearing handicap calculation accuracy was evaluated comparing AudCal vs a web-based calculator. Results: Hearing loss was found in 83 and 84 out of 220 standard audiometries and AudCal hearing tests (Cohen’s Kappa = 0.89). The mean difference between AudCal and standard audiogram thresholds was −0.21 ± 6.38 dB HL. Excellent reliability and concordance between standard audiometry and the application’s hearing loss assessment test were obtained (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96; intra-class correlation coefficient = 0.93). AudCal vs a web-based calculator were perfectly correlated (Pearson’s r = 1).

Keywords:

• Audiology
• hearing loss
• hearing hándicap
• calculator
• iPhone
• iOS
• application
• mHealth
• objective-c
• algorithm

Acknowledgments

This study has been approved by the CEIC-E Spanish Ethics Committee (acta 05/2014, internal code PI2014055). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Declaration of interest: Jorge Rey-Martinez owns AudCal for iOS. The remaining authors report no conflicts of interest.