evaluating the reliability of ’audiclick’: a click-based mobile app for hearing loss

Introduction:to develop and validate a click-based mobile “audiclick” app employing click noises for hearing assessments.materials and methods:this prospective comparative study compares the “audiclick” app as a hearing screening tool to pure tone audiometry. participants listened to sounds through wired earbud headphones that were connected to an android or ios device.results:the study involved 110 participants aged between 18 to 80 years old. all degrees of hearing loss severity corresponds to pure tone average (p < 0.01) results. the app was also found to be effective at identifying hearing loss (80-99% sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and accuracy). test-retest reliability had also shown excellent icc scores of 0.93.conclusions:this study demonstrates that a mobile app using click sounds can be as efficient as pure tone audiometry for field screenings, while being more cost-effective and easier to develop.