Assessing the Effectiveness of a Tablet-Based Hearing Screening Device for School Hearing Screening

Background and Objectives Hearing loss during school age can adversely impact language development, academic performance and social functioning. Early detection through accurate screening is therefore essential. However, conventional school hearing tests in Korea are limited by low sensitivity and lack of standardization. This study aimed to evaluate the validity of a tablet-based pure-tone hearing screening method implemented in real-world school settings.Subjects and Method A total of 207 students (414 ears) from elementary and high schools participated. The screening procedure involved presenting pure-tone stimuli at 25 dB HL across four frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz) using a calibrated tablet-based device. Screening outcomes were compared to those obtained from a gold-standard clinical audiometer (Interacoustics AD629). Predictive values, Cohen’s kappa, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to assess diagnostic accuracy, agreement, and discriminative ability.Results The tablet-based hearing screening demonstrated high diagnostic validity. At the participant level, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were all 100%. Sensitivity and specificity at all tested frequencies exceeded 99.8%. Cohen’s kappa coefficients indicated substantial to perfect agreement (K=0.80-1.00), with perfect agreement (K=1.00) observed at all frequencies. The area under the curve was 1.00 across all frequencies, reflecting perfect discrimination.Conclusion The findings support the validity of the tablet-based pure-tone screening method for application in school-based hearing assessments. Its high diagnostic accuracy and strong agreement with the gold-standard audiometric test highlights its potential as a reliable and scalable alternative for enhancing current school hearing screening practices.