Abstract

  Hearing loss is one of the most challenging problems confronting medicine since it may affect the personality so adversely that it can lower someone’s quality of life. The aim of the study is to establish the validity of internet based hearing test. The hearing status of adults was evaluated by comparing audiometric findings and internet-based hearing screening test along with questionnaires to assess the potential risk factors associated with hearing loss. This cross-sectional study included 256 participants (18 to 40 years of both genders) by simple random sampling method, of which 245 had completed all the procedures. The study was carried out by using Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), two internet-based speech-in-noise tests: internet test 1 (HearCom Digit Triplet Test offered by MED-EL) and internet test 2 (Speech in Noise Test by National Health Service) and survey questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Pearson Chi-Square test was used to analyze the data. All presentations and data evaluations were carried out by using SPSS version 21.0. The prevalence of hearing loss was 26.1% with PTA; 5.3% with internet test 1 and 47.3% with internet test 2. Among two internet-based hearing screening tests, internet test 1 is significantly correlated with PTA averages (p <0.05, 2-tailed) and the correlation coefficients showed weak association between the different tests. The study showed a significant correlation between audiograms and internet-based hearing tests and significant differences with associated factors as evaluated by using an extensive questionnaire. This study suggests that internet-based hearing test is feasible to screen for hearing status online and the data are of great value in applications and for advanced studies. Though an internet-based hearing test cannot replace a clinical pure-tone audiogram, it is a feasible screening tool for hearing ability in a large-scale population.

Keywords: Internet Based Hearing Test; Audiometry; Hearing Loss; Noise; Pure Tone; Speech

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Citation

Citation: Usha Kumari., et al. “Comparison of Audiometric Findings with Internet-based Hearing Screening Tests and the Relationship with Other Associated Factors in Adults". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 4.12 (2020): 103-113.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Usha Kumari., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.