Clinical evaluation of a computerized self-administered hearing test

Objective: To establish the reliability and validity of a computerized self-administered hearing test. Design: Cross-sectional within a comparative study of subjects. Study sample: Subjects were 100 Chinese adults who attended the audiology clinic in a hospital for a hearing test. Results: There was no significant difference in the thresholds of unmasked air-conduction hearing obtained with the computerized self-administered hearing test via a smartphone and those obtained with standard pure-tone audiometry. High test-retest reliability was observed with the self-administered hearing test (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.95), and was comparable with that observed in standard pure-tone audiometry (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.97). The thresholds of the self-administered hearing test measured in a sound-proof booth were not significantly different from those measured in a quiet office room. Conclusions: The results suggest that the computerized self-administered hearing test is a reliable and valid measure of unmasked air-conduction hearing thresholds. Copyright © 2012 British Society of Audiology, International Society of Audiology, and Nordic Audiological Society.