Academic Journal
Automated pure tone audiometry (PTA) in the assessment of hearing loss in pediatric populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies.
| Τίτλος: | Automated pure tone audiometry (PTA) in the assessment of hearing loss in pediatric populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Alzubaidi RH; College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: reemhaalzubaidi123@gmail.com., Almania A; Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia., Alamri SW; College of Medicine, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia., Bannan HA; College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia., Alanazi AK; College of Medicine, Tabuk University, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia., Alqesair MH; Medical School, University of Szeged Albert Szent-Györgyi, Szeged, Hungary., Taher AH; College of Medicine, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia., Alruwaili LM; College of Medicine, Jouf University, Skaka, Saudi Arabia., Alqarni AM; Prison Health Services, Ministry of Interior, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia., Alsharif SM; King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital, Taif Health Cluster, Saudi Arabia., Alkusayer MM; Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology and Airway Surgery, KSMC, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. |
| Πηγή: | International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology [Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol] 2026 Nov; Vol. 210, pp. 113020. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Sep 18. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article; Systematic Review; Meta-Analysis; Review |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier Scientific Publishers Country of Publication: Ireland NLM ID: 8003603 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1872-8464 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 01655876 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: Limerick : Elsevier Scientific Publishers Original Publication: [Amsterdam] Elsevier/North-Holland. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Hearing Loss*/diagnosis , Audiometry, Pure-Tone*/methods, Humans ; Child ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Smartphone |
| Περίληψη: | Background: Childhood hearing loss severely delays the normal development of children. While traditional pure-tone audiometry (PTA) is the gold standard, it faces logistical barriers, specialist shortages, and high costs. Automated, smartphone-based testing addresses these gaps by enabling remote, task-shifted screening by non-specialists. This meta-analysis evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of automated PTA specifically within pediatric populations. Methods: We searched for relevant articles up to March 2026 from PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers extracted data from the selected studies, including baseline information, outcomes, type of device used for testing, and diagnostic accuracy metrics. All data analyses were performed using R version 4.4.1. Results: After removal of 1186 duplicates, 2703 records were screened and 12 studies were included. In the bivariate model, automated PTA demonstrated a pooled sensitivity of 0.745 (95% CI, 0.620-0.840), specificity of 0.882 (95% CI, 0.785-0.939), diagnostic odds ratio of 24.667, and area under the curve of 0.878. In the univariate analyses, pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.78 and 0.91, respectively. Across individual studies, sensitivity ranged from 0.28 to 1.00 and specificity ranged from 0.58 to 1.00. Conclusion: Automated PTA showed high specificity but moderate sensitivity in pediatric populations. It may be useful as an initial hearing-screening or triage tool, particularly in cooperative school-aged children and resource-limited settings, but it should not replace comprehensive diagnostic audiometry. Performance was less consistent in children younger than 7 years and varied with ambient noise, hardware, calibration, and testing protocol. (Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Automated pure-tone audiometry; Diagnostic test accuracy; Meta-analysis; Pediatric hearing loss; Systematic review |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20261004 Date Completed: 20261019 Latest Revision: 20261020 |
| Update Code: | 20261021 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijporl.2026.113020 |
| PMID: | 42830011 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1872-8464 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ijporl.2026.113020 |