Hearing Test? – Mimi Hearing Test App
Hearing Test?
Hearing test on a phone? Well, in this video I’m talking about the Mimi hearing test app. Coming up!
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Hi, I’m Dr. Derek – audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with Pro Fit Hearing.com bringing you the best insight in today’s latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
Today, I’m talking about the Mimi hearing test app for Apple iOS. It’s also available for Android devices.
The Mimi hearing test app is considered a tool for hearing screening. Their website states the following: “Mimi Hearing Test does not supersede or replace a diagnosis by a physician and is not intended to be used for monitoring, treatment or alleviation of any disease or disability. If you have questions or concerns with regards to your hearing health, please consult a medical professional.“
If you are using an iPhone, the Mimi hearing test app results will also be visible within the Apple Health app. You can then use these results to calibrate Apple AirPods Pro with the headphone accommodations feature within iOS 14. For more information on using audiogram data with AirPods Pro, check out my blog post HERE.
Hearing Test App
Ok, so let’s take a look at the Mimi hearing test app. (To follow along, view video below.)
So when you first open the app, you have three options to choose from: Profile, Explore, or Test Results. I’ll come back to the profile page once I’ve completed my test. The Explore page has a google doc questionnaire for input on how to make the app better. Under test results we can start a new test.
First find a quiet place for your test that is also free of any distractions. Make sure your headphones are connected. Next select the headphones that you’re using. You have the option of using in ear, over ear, on ear, or unknown headphones. So as you can see it has the option to select Apple AirPods, and they’re circled green so that means that these are calibrated headphones for the app.
So you want to go ahead and adjust your device volume so you’re at the 50% mark. It says press the button while you can hear the beep and release when you stop hearing something. So once you start your hearing test, you will hear a continuous tone that changes in pitch and also volume. This entire test takes about five minutes. Okay, so I’ve completed the mimi hearing test.
So my test shows that I have no hearing loss. It has hearing loss grade: none, slight, mild, moderate, or severe. So when I close that screen, you can see it has a list of all the hearing tests I’ve completed. So let’s take a closer look at the results. If I click on the hearing test results, you can see it shows my results in an audiogram format. The hearing test threshold levels indicated by the app can be confusing if you’re familiar with how to read an audiogram. This app uses an O to mark threshold results for both ears. An audiogram indicates left ear results with an X and right ear results with an O. You can also see from the key below that a solid orange circle means reliable data. My threshold data appears as a white circle which is indicated as being unreliable. I did complete my hearing test in a quiet room, and I used Apple AirPods Pro. Apple AirPods Pro are considered calibrated earphones for this test, so I’m not sure why it’s considering my threshold data to be unreliable.
I do know that the last time I had my hearing tested by an audiologist in a sound booth, my hearing was within a normal range. This app indicates that my hearing thresholds are still within a normal range today. This app also lists a percentage of hearing for both ears. For the Mimi hearing test app, the meaning of this percentage is unclear and it doesn’t seem to indicate anything of clinical significance. An audiogram that your provider completes uses percentages to indicate how many words you can correctly repeat back out of 25. So if you understand 20 out of 25 words, that would be 80 correct word recognition. So let’s take another look at Profile. Under Profile you can see the following: hearing capacity, hearing loss grade, your better ear, and how you compare.
Hearing capacity lists the percentage of hearing detected in both ears. Again, I don’t think there’s any clinical significance to this percentage because I did not complete any word recognition testing. Hearing loss grade indicates the degree of assumed hearing loss that is detected by the app: none, slight, mild, moderate, or severe. This is using the World Health Organization classification criteria which is different from the commonly used criteria by the American Speech Language Hearing Association.
Your better ear indicates whether you have symmetrical or asymmetrical hearing. Clinically, a significant difference in hearing between ears would be a difference in hearing thresholds of 15 dB or greater.
Under how you compare, you can see how well you hear in your age group: worse hearing, average hearing, or better hearing. There’s no norms for hearing loss by age, however our hearing ability does decrease gradually over time as we get older. I can only assume that this data is based upon the sample of people that have used the Mimi hearing test app.
See a Physician or Audiologist
I recommended that you see your local physician or audiologist if you have concerns about your hearing. Seeing a medical professional is still required to accurately diagnose and treat hearing loss. Once you have seen your hearing healthcare provider, you can compare your audiogram to the results obtained with the Mimi hearing test app.
Question of the Day
So for today’s question, have you tried the Mimi hearing test app and are the results consistent with your last audiogram from your provider? Let’s connect in the comments below.
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Remember Pro Fit Hearing brings you the best insight today’s latest hearing aids, headphones, and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
-Dr. Derek