Deafblindness in Children: Time to Act in India

Deafblindness or dual sensory impairment (DSI) is a distinctive disability, which encompasses varying degrees of hearing impairmentand low vision. The impact of deafblindness is not merely an addition of the impact of the two disabilities, but it is manifold. Deafblindchildren have cognitive, speech, motor and social delay. They can have multiple medical needs, which should be identified and met. It isestimated that there could be more than 500,000 deafblind adults and children in India. Doctors, general public, strategists and lawmakers need to have heightened awareness of its various aspects. It is time India acts for long-term welfare of its deafblind children,including their disability rights and access to a structured health and education system, thus increasing their chance of becomingindependent employable adults.

Métodos de avaliação da dupla deficiência sensorial em idosos. Uma revisão integrativa / Methods of evaluation of double sensory impairment in the elderly. An integrative review / Métodos de evaluación de la discapacidad sensorial doble en los ancianos. Una revisión integradora

O objetivo é realizar revisão sobre os métodos de avaliação utilizados para identificar a dupla deficiência sensorial em idosos. Como método, a busca por artigos sobre dupla deficiência sensorial em idosos, nas bases de dados PubMed, Scopus e BVS. Resultados: Foram selecionados 17 estudos: a 8 utilizaram-se métodos subjetivos; a 5, métodos objetivos e; e a 03, ambos os métodos. Concluiu-se que não houve padronização na forma de avaliar essa população entre os estudos que abordaram a dupla deficiência sensorial em idosos.

Objective: To review the evaluation methods used to identify dual sensory impairment in the elderly. Method: Search for articles on dual sensory impairment in the elderly in the PubMed, Scopus and BVS databases. Results: Seventeen studies were selected, of which 08 used subjective methods, 05 objective methods and 03 both methods. Conclusion: There was no standardization in the way to evaluate this population among the studies that addressed the double sensorial deficiency in the elderly.

El objetivo es revisar los métodos de evaluación utilizados para identificar la discapacidad sensorial doble en los ancianos. Como método, la búsqueda de artículos sobre discapacidad sensorial doble en los ancianos en las bases de datos PubMed, Scopus y VHL. Resultados: se seleccionaron 17 estudios: 8 con métodos subjetivos; a 5, métodos objetivos y; y 03, ambos métodos. Se concluyó que no había estandarización en la forma de evaluar a esta población entre los estudios que abordaron la deficiencia sensorial doble en los ancianos.

Profile and Quality of Life of Children with Dual Sensory Impairment or Deafblindness in Visually Impaired Special Centres / Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia

@#Coping with dual sensory impairment or deafblindness can be a challenging task for an individual and for the caregiver. Currently limited information is available hence the objective of this study is to determine the profile and quality of life for children with dual sensory impairment or deafblindness. It is hoped that with this information, better rehabilitation programs can be designed for children with deafblindness in Malaysia. A purposive sampling was adopted. Children with dual sensory impairment were invited to participate in the study. Demographic and hearing loss information was extracted from the children’s medical records. Face to face interviews with parents were conducted using the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire. Vision assessment comprising visual acuity, refraction, cover test, external ocular examination and children’s behaviour observations was conducted. Four children were identified based on sample size calculation and fulfilled the dual sensory impairment criteria out of the 44 children screened. The mean age was 9.3 ± 2.9 years old. Majority of the children were of Indian ethnicity. The category of deafblindness was congenital deafblindness with rubella as the main cause. All the children were premature babies but had a normal birth weight. The hearing profile showed the majority of them had bilateral profound hearing loss with mean pure tone average ranging between 50 dBHL and 120 dBHL. The main type of hearing problem was sensorineural and the majority of children owned hearing aids. The visual profile of the deafblindness children revealed either light perception (LP) and categorised as blind or low to moderate myopia. A majority had esotropia. All the children used braille as a visual aids and children with residual vision used closed circuit television (CCTV). Tactile methods were the main means for communication and majority of the children used a white cane. Behaviour and external observation assessments concurred with the hearing and vision impairment manifested. Quality of life in these subjects was lower in 7 out of 8 SF-36 dimensions as compared to normative values. Congenital deafblindness is the main category found among the children in this study and they had profound vision and hearing losses. Tactile methods are the main means of communication for these children. Their quality of life was affected and introducing deafblindness rehabilitation, which includes a combination of hearing and low vision rehabilitation, will be able to assist them in coping with their daily activities.

Gender-Specific Associations of Sensory Impairments with Depression and Cognitive Impairment in Later Life

OBJECTIVE: Sensory impairments, such as vision and hearing impairments, increase with age, and studies have shown that self-reported vision and hearing impairments are associated with adverse mental health outcomes in later life. Although gender differences may exist in the associations between sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes, little research has been done examining gender differences in the above associations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes with the aim of determining whether any association differs by gender. METHODS: The study sample was drawn from a nationally representative data set, the 2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and the final sample consisted of 2,167 females and 1,664 males aged 65 and over. Self-reported sensory impairments were categorized into four groups: no sensory impairment (reference), vision impairment only, hearing impairment only, and dual sensory impairment. Depression and cognitive impairment were used as dependent variables in separate analyses. RESULTS: Adjusted for confounding variables, results from a multivariate analysis showed that vision impairment was significantly associated with depression only among women. Moreover, hearing impairment was significantly associated with cognitive impairment for women, but not for men. Having dual sensory impairment was associated with depression only among men, while having dual sensory impairment was associated with cognitive impairment only among women. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the associations between sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes vary according to gender. Therefore, gender-specific strategies in healthcare policies are needed.

Sensory Impairment in Infraorbital Nerve Following Mid-Facial Fractures

PURPOSE: Sensory impairment in infraorbital nerve is common symptom following mid-facial fractures. The purpose of this study is to document the incidence of sensory impairment in infraorbital nerve following mid-facial fractures and its recovery. METHODS: Three hundreds fourteen patients with mid-facial fracture were included involving emergence areas of infraorbital nerve. Fractures were classified into zygoma fracture, maxilla fracture, complex comminuted fracture and pure blow out fracture. Neurosensory function was assessed with clinical symptoms and light touch test in infraorbital nerve regions. Patients were followed and sensory function was evaluated immediately, 1, 3 and 6 months after trauma. RESULTS: The total series consisted of 198 zygoma fractures, 19 maxilla fractures, 30 complex comminuted fractures and 67 pure blow out fractures. The incidence of sensory impairment was 60% (63% in zygoma fractures, 84% in maxilla fractures, 93% in complex comminuted fractures, 31% in pure blow out fractures). Persistent sensory impairments were remained in 32% (33% in zygoma fractures, 47% in maxilla fractures, 73% in complex comminuted fractures, 6% in pure blow out fractures) 6 months after trauma. Younger patients had better prognosis than older patients in recovery of infraorbital nerve function(p<0.05, chi2-test). Mean recovery time was 11 weeks. CONCLUSION: The incidence of post-traumatic sensory impairment was different according to fracture types. Age of patients and fracture type were important factors that influence to recovery of sensory impairment. Complex comminuted fracture had poor prognosis, and pure blow out fractures had better prognosis than other fractures.