ArticleJMIR mHealth and uHealth2020
A Smartphone-Based Approach to Screening for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Cross-Sectional Validity Study.
Article in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Diagnostic Accuracy of Smartphone-Based Audiometry for Hearing Loss Detection: Meta-analysis.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2021Pooled it
- Evaluating the Accuracy and User Satisfaction of Culturally-Relevant Kannada-Based Hearing Screening App Compared to Technical Screening Method.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2026Article
- A novel audiogram model for predicting the prognosis of sudden sensorineural hearing loss.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2025Article
- Prediction of Hearing Help Seeking to Design a Recommendation Module of an mHealth Hearing App: Intensive Longitudinal Study of Feature Importance Assessment.JMIR human factors · 2024Article
- Optimizing age-related hearing risk predictions: an advanced machine learning integration with HHIE-S.BioData mining · 2023Article
- Is There an Association between Concurrent Epstein-Barr Virus Infection and Sudden Hearing Loss?-A Case-Control Study in an East Asian Population.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Evaluating the hearing screening effectiveness of active noise cancellation technology among young adults: A pilot study.Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA · 2023Article
- Long-term Follow-up of Patients With Hernia Using the Hernia-Specific Quality-of-Life Mobile App: Feasibility Questionnaire Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Objective Signal Analysis for Investigating Feasibility of Active Noise Cancellation in Hearing Screening.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Behavioral Evaluation of 3 Smartphone-Based Hearing Aid Apps for Patients with Mild Hearing Loss: An Exploratory Pilot Study.The journal of international advanced otology · 2022Article
- Diagnostic Validity of Self-Reported Hearing Loss in Elderly Taiwanese Individuals: Diagnostic Performance of a Hearing Self-Assessment Questionnaire on Audiometry.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is an otologic emergency that warrants urgent management. Pure-tone audiometry remains the gold standard for definitively diagnosing SSNHL. However, in clinical settings such as primary care practices and urgent care facilities, conventional pure-tone audiometry is often unavailable.
objectiveThis study aimed to determine the correlation between hearing outcomes measured by conventional pure-tone audiometry and those measured by the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app and determine the diagnostic validity of the hearing scale differences between the two ears as obtained by the Ear Scale app for SSNHL.
methodsThis cross-sectional study included a cohort of 88 participants with possible SSNHL who were referred to an otolaryngology clinic or emergency department at a tertiary medical center in Taipei, Taiwan, between January 2018 and June 2019. All participants underwent hearing assessments with conventional pure-tone audiometry and the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app consecutively. The gold standard for diagnosing SSNHL was defined as the pure-tone average (PTA) difference between the two ears being ≥30 dB HL. The hearing results measured by the Ear Scale app were presented as 20 stratified hearing scales. The hearing scale difference between the two ears was estimated to detect SSNHL.
resultsThe study sample comprised 88 adults with a mean age of 46 years, and 50% (44/88) were females. PTA measured by conventional pure-tone audiometry was strongly correlated with the hearing scale assessed by the Ear Scale app, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of .88 (95% CI .82-.92). The sensitivity of the 5-hearing scale difference (25 dB HL difference) between the impaired ear and the contralateral ear in diagnosing SSNHL was 95.5% (95% CI 87.5%-99.1%), with a specificity of 66.7% (95% CI 43.0%-85.4%).
conclusionsOur findings suggest that the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app can be useful in the evaluation of SSNHL in clinical settings where conventional pure-tone audiometry is not available.
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