TY - JOUR
T1 - A smartphone national hearing test
T2 - Performance and characteristics of users
AU - De Sousa, Karina C.
AU - Swanepoel, De Wet
AU - Moore, David R.
AU - Smits, Cas
N1 - Funding Information: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Award 5R21DC016241-02, awarded to David R. Moore and De Wet Swanepoel. Portions of this article were presented at the 3rd International Internet & Audiology Meeting, Louisville, KY, July 2017, which was funded by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Grant 1R13DC016547 and the Oticon Foundation. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - Purpose: The smartphone digits-in-noise hearing test, called hearZA, was made available as a self-test in South Africa in March 2016. This study determined characteristics and test performance of the listeners who took the test. Method: A retrospective analysis of 24,072 persons who completed a test between March 2016 and August 2017 was conducted. User characteristics, including age, English-speaking competence, and self-reported hearing difficulty, were analyzed. Regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors of the speech reception threshold. Results: Overall referral rate of the hearZA test was 22.4%, and 37% of these reported a known hearing difficulty. Age distributions showed that 33.2% of listeners were ages 30 years and younger, 40.5% were between ages 31 and 50 years, and 26.4% were older than 50 years. Age, self-reported English-speaking competence, and self-reported hearing difficulty were significant predictors of the speech reception threshold. Conclusions: High test uptake, particularly among younger users, and high overall referral rate indicates that the hearZA app addresses a public health need. The test also reaches target audiences, including those with self-reported hearing difficulty and those with normal hearing who should monitor their hearing ability.
AB - Purpose: The smartphone digits-in-noise hearing test, called hearZA, was made available as a self-test in South Africa in March 2016. This study determined characteristics and test performance of the listeners who took the test. Method: A retrospective analysis of 24,072 persons who completed a test between March 2016 and August 2017 was conducted. User characteristics, including age, English-speaking competence, and self-reported hearing difficulty, were analyzed. Regression analyses were conducted to determine predictors of the speech reception threshold. Results: Overall referral rate of the hearZA test was 22.4%, and 37% of these reported a known hearing difficulty. Age distributions showed that 33.2% of listeners were ages 30 years and younger, 40.5% were between ages 31 and 50 years, and 26.4% were older than 50 years. Age, self-reported English-speaking competence, and self-reported hearing difficulty were significant predictors of the speech reception threshold. Conclusions: High test uptake, particularly among younger users, and high overall referral rate indicates that the hearZA app addresses a public health need. The test also reaches target audiences, including those with self-reported hearing difficulty and those with normal hearing who should monitor their hearing ability.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85056711569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85056711569&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30452748
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJA-IMIA3-18-0016
DO - https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_AJA-IMIA3-18-0016
M3 - Article
C2 - 30452748
SN - 1059-0889
VL - 27
SP - 448
EP - 454
JO - American Journal of Audiology
JF - American Journal of Audiology
IS - 3 Special Issue
ER -