Calibration and initial validation of a low-cost computer-based screening audiometer coupled to consumer insert phone-earmuff combination for boothless audiometry

Abstract

Objective To undertake calibration and preliminary validation of a custom-designed computer-based screening audiometer connected to consumer insert phone-earmuff combination for adult pure tone audiometry. Design Part 1 involved electroacoustic measurement and biological calibration of a laptop-earphone pair used for the computer-based audiometry (CBA). Part 2 compared CBA thresholds obtained without a sound booth with those measured using the gold-standard clinical audiometry. Study sample 17 young normal-hearing volunteers (Part 1) and 43 normal and hearing loss subjects (Part 2) recruited from an audiology clinic via convenience sampling. Results The transducer-device combination produced outputs suitable for measuring thresholds down to 0 dB HL. Threshold pairs obtained from the CBA and clinical audiometry were highly correlated (Spearman’s correlation coefficient, ρ = 0.92, p < 0.0001) and had a good degree of agreement (mean difference of −1.06 ± 7.63 dB). Also, the CBA showed about 90% sensitivity and 80% specificity for detecting hearing loss based on low (0.5, 1, 2 kHz) and high frequency (4, 8 kHz) pure tone averages of >25 dB HL. Conclusions The use of a computer-based audiometer application with consumer insert phone-earmuff combination can offer a cost-effective solution for boothless screening audiometry.