At-Home Auditory Assessment Using Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART) to Understand Self-Reported Hearing Difficulties

Previous research has demonstrated that remote testing of suprathreshold auditory function using distributed technologies can produce results that closely match those obtained in laboratory settings with specialized, calibrated equipment. This work has facilitated the validation of various behavioral measures in remote settings that provide valuable insights into auditory function. In the current study, we sought to address whether a broad battery of auditory assessments could explain variance in self-report of hearing handicap. To address this, we used a portable psychophysics assessment tool along with an online recruitment tool (Prolific) to collect auditory task data from participants with (n = 84) and without (n = 108) self-reported hearing difficulty. Results indicate several measures of auditory processing differentiate participants with and without self-reported hearing difficulty. In addition, we report the factor structure of the test battery to clarify the underlying constructs and the extent to which they individually or jointly inform hearing function. Relationships between measures of auditory processing were found to be largely consistent with a hypothesized construct model that guided task selection. Overall, this study advances our understanding of the relationship between auditory and cognitive processing in those with and without subjective hearing difficulty. More broadly, these results indicate promise that these measures can be used in larger scale research studies in remote settings and have potential to contribute to telehealth approaches to better address people's hearing needs.