The Emerging Future of Mobile Audiometry: A Prospective Validation Study of the Mimi Hearing Test Application

Abstract

Objective The objective of this study is to assess the accuracy of the Mimi Hearing Test (MHT) mobile application in the detection of air conduction (AC) thresholds and in screening for moderate hearing loss. Study Design Prospective clinical study. Setting Tertiary care center. Patients Participants with or without a varying degree of hearing loss, aged 18 years and over, without cognitive impairment and without active otorrhea or earwax impaction at the time of the hearing assessment were included. Intervention Subjects with a ranging severity of hearing loss underwent a conventional in-booth audiogram as well as mobile-based screening with MHT in a quiet room (45.5 dB background noise) on the same day. Both regular over-the-ear and noise-canceling headphones were tested with MHT. Main Outcome Measures Comparisons of AC thresholds between conventional audiometry and mobile-based audiometry at discrete frequencies and with pure-tone averages (PTA) were performed. Results A total of 75 adults (mean age: 56.2 yr, 54.7% male) were recruited and 63 used for analysis. Of the thresholds measured with MHT using regular headphones, 44.0% were within 10 dB of the conventional audiogram, compared to 39.3% using noise-canceling headphones. MHT demonstrated best accuracy at high frequencies (4–8 kHz). When screening for moderate hearing loss (PTA >40 dB HL), MHT demonstrated a sensitivity and specificity of 100.0% and 80.2%, respectively. Conclusions MHT is reliable for identifying moderate hearing loss but lacks precision in detecting thresholds at low frequencies. Noise canceling headphones seem to improve its precision at 4,000 Hz only.