ABSTRACT
Objective: A survey on hearing state of blind schoolboys in Tehran
Method and Material: This cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted on 640 ears of 320 blind schoolboys of 5-23 years old as a hearing screening in Tehran blind schools, 2000-01
Results: 20.94% was hearing-impaired of whom 13.75% had bilateral and 7.19% had unilateral hearing loss. 15.16% of students suffered from sensory-neural hearing loss [SNHL], 1.56% from conductive hearing loss [CHL] and 0.62% from mixed hearing loss [MHL], that is, SNHL occurred 10 times more than CHL. Hearing loss was often mild and moderate, and audiogram configuration was primarily high tone loss [HTL]. On the whole, 8.13% of students needed medical treatment, 15.13% needed audiological rehabilitation and 3.44% of them were in need of both medical and rehabilitation Intervention. General information about hearing problem was very low among students, their parents and teachers, which was 26.87%, 20.9% and 22.39%, respectively. There is significant relation between SNHL and parents and apos relationship
Conclusion: The prevalence of hearing loss in blinds is higher than in normal-visions. It is often sensorineural. So, it is important to identify these children through hearing screening [Using more high frequencies] and to conduct medical as well as rehabilitative intervention