Development of a Mobile-app based free field click test against
conventional free field voice test: A randomized controlled trial
Abstract
Objective:Hearing loss is a prevalent disease with free field voice test
(FFVT) being a common hearing test performed.FFVT has its own
disadvantage as a screening tool as there is no standardization of
speech among examiners.We aim to invent mobile-app based hearing
screening using Flutter-Dart programming language that mimics findings
of FFVT.The app is termed as Free field click test (FFCT).Our aim is to
compare sensitivity&specificity of FFCT and FFVT with Pure Tone
audiogram (PTA). Methods:This is an open-labelled randomized controlled
trial. This study was conducted at the (removed for blind peer review)
from December-March 2020. 50 patients from 18-80 years old with
complaint of hearing loss were recruited.These patients were randomly
assigned into two groups; FFVT&FFCT which were compared with
PTA.Categorical data were analyzed with Chi-square test,non-categorical
data were calculated with Student t-test for statistical significance.
Results:Results were calculated based on degree of hearing loss against
PTA.FFCT‘s rate of detection of hearing loss was significant for all
degrees of hearing loss with p-values of <0.05. FFVT’s
detection rate was only significant to normal hearing, moderate &
severe hearing loss. FFCT had higher sensitivity of 94.1% for normal
hearing compared to 52% for FFVT.FFVT had higher specificity but with a
marginal difference only.A higher rate of accuracy (94%) and strength
of the correlation (0.97) were obtained for FFCT than FFVT.
Conclusion:FFCT is a more sensitive&accurate tool than FFVT in
detecting hearing thresholds. It proves to be an ideal tool to screen
hearing loss and is convenient in times of social distancing during
COVID-19 pandemic now.