An empirical study on the influence of ambient noise in non-soundproof settings on mobile audiometry and correspondent adjustment
TIAN Shanshan
WANG Ruijie
AI Yu
LIANG Shuo
XU Wenkai
DIAO Mengzhen
ZHANG Zongyun
Abstract：Objective To report the impact of ambient noise in non-soundproof environments on the accuracy of mobile audiometry,and the efficacy of correction through post-measurement adjustment based on environmental noise levels.Methods Seventy participants aged≥50 years(mean=68.57 years)underwent mobile audiometry using the"Silver Hearing Health"WeChat mini-program in a quiet clinical room,where ambient noise levels were simultaneously recorded.Conventional pure-tone audiometry conducted in a sound-treated booth served as the control.Post hoc adjustment based on ambient noise levels was applied to mobile audiometry thresholds.Conventional pure-tone audiometric thresholds were compared to mobile audiometric thresholds before and after the adjustment using the Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and Bland-Altman analysis.Participants were stratified into normal-hearing and hearing-loss groups according to the conventional pure-tone average(PTA)≥20 dB HL,and diagnostic performance for identifying hearing loss was evaluated using the same threshold before and after adjustment.Results Before adjustment,mobile audiometry overestimated thresholds across frequencies and PTA(P＜0.05),especially at low frequencies.After noise adjustment,differences were non-significant in the total sample and hearing-loss group(P＞0.05),but minor residual differences persisted in the normal-hearing group,including PTA.Bland-Altman plots indicated improved diagnostic agreement,with narrower coherency limits and more concentrated data distribution post-adjustment,while diagnostic specificity improved from 0.35 to 0.85,and the Youden index increased from 0.35 to 0.77,suggesting improved overall diagnostic performance after accounting for ambient noise,Conclusions Compensating ambient noise levels during mobile audiometry in non-soundproof settings can enhance result accuracy.This approach demonstrates potential feasibility for expanding hearing screening services in resource-limited environments,and offers a methodological perspective for future refinement and broader adoption.
Keywords：hearing lossambient noisemobile audiometrynon-soundproof environments
Publication Date：2026-03-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-19(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 244-250 )