Accuracy of automated pure-tone audiometry in population-based samples of older adults.

Objective: Automated pure-tone audiometry is frequently used in teleaudiology and hearing screening. Given the high prevalence of age-related hearing loss, older adults are an important target population. This study aimed to investigate the accuracy of automated audiometry in older adults, and to examine the influence of test frequency, age, sex, hearing and cognitive status.

Design and study sample: In a population-based study, two age-homogeneous samples of 70-year-olds (n = 238) and 85-year-olds (n = 114) were tested with automated audiometry in an office using circum-aural headphones and, around 4 weeks later, with manual audiometry conducted to clinical standards. The differences were analysed for individual frequencies (range: 0.25-8 kHz) and pure-tone averages.

Results: The mean difference varied across test frequencies and age groups, the overall figure being -0.7 dB (SD = 8.8, p < 0.001), and 68% to 94% of automated thresholds corresponded within ±10 dB of manual thresholds. The poorest accuracy was found at 8 kHz. Age, sex, hearing and cognitive status were not associated with the accuracy (ordinal regression analysis).

Conclusions: Automated audiometry seems to produce accurate assessments of hearing sensitivity in the majority of older adults, but with larger error margins than in younger populations, and is not affected by relevant patient factors associated with old age.