Digital Speech Hearing Screening Using A Quick Novel Mobile Hearing Impairment Assessment

Abstract Background By 2050, 1 in 4 people worldwide will be living with hearing impairment by 2050. We propose a digital Speech Hearing Screener (dSHS) using short nonsense word recognition to measure speech-hearing ability. We compare dSHS outcomes with standardized pure-tone averages (PTA) and speech-recognition thresholds (SRT). 50 participants (aged 55 or older underwent pure-tone and speech-recognition thresholding. Methods One-way ANOVA was used to compare differences between hearing impaired and hearing not-impaired groups, by the dSHS, with a clinical threshold of moderately impaired hearing at 35dB and severe hearing impairment at 50dB. Results dSHS results significantly correlated with PTAs/SRTs. ANOVA results revealed the dSHS was significantly different (F(1,47) = 38.1, p < 0.001) between hearing impaired and unimpaired groups. Classification analysis using a 35dB threshold, yielded accuracy of 85.7% forPTA-based impairment and 81.6% forSRT-based impairment. At a 50dB threshold, dSHS classification accuracy was 79.6% for PTA-based impairment (NPV-93%) and 83.7% (NPV-100%) for SRT-based impairment. Conclusions The dSHS successfully differentiates between hearing impaired and unimpaired individuals in under 3 minutes. This hearing screener offers a time saving, in clinic hearing screening to streamline the triage of those with likely hearing impairment to the appropriate follow up assessment, thereby improving the quality of services. Additionally, this tool can help to rule out hearing impairment as a cause or confounder of cognitive impairment.