Clinical validation of automated audiometry with continuous noise-monitoring in a clinically heterogeneous population outside a sound-treated environment

Abstract

OBJECTIVE : Examine the accuracy of automated audiometry in a clinically heterogeneous population of adults using the KUDUwave automated audiometer. DESIGN : Prospective accuracy study. Manual audiometry was performed in a sound-treated room and automated audiometry was not conducted in a sound-treated environment. STUDY SAMPLE : 42 consecutively recruited participants from a tertiary otolaryngology department in Western Australia. RESULTS : Absolute mean differences ranged between 5.12 – 9.68 dB (air-conduction) and 8.26 – 15.00 dB (bone-conduction). 86.5% of manual and automated 4FAs were within 10 dB (i.e. ±5 dB); 94.8% were within 15 dB. However, there were significant (p<0.05) differences between automated and manual audiometry at 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz (air-conduction) and 0.5 and 1 kHz (bone-conduction). The effect of age (≥55 years) on accuracy (p = 0.014) was not significant on linear regression (p>0.05; R2 = 0.11). The presence of a hearing loss (better ear ≥26 dB) did not significantly affect accuracy (p = 0.604; air-conduction), (p = 0.218; boneconduction). CONCLUSIONS : This study provides clinical validation of automated audiometry using the KUDUwave in a clinically heterogeneous population, without the use of a sound-treated environment. Whilst threshold variations were statistically significant, future research is needed to ascertain the clinical significance of such variation.