An Epidemiologic Study of Hearing Impairment of children under 14 Years Old in Guizhou Province / 听力学及言语疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To undertake a survey on the prevalence, pathogenic factors and treatment needs of hearing impairment in children under 14 years old in Guizhou province. Methods Using the probability proportion to size (PPS) method, 2 068 children aged 0～14 years were included in the study and in 30 clusters in Guizhou province based on the WHO protocol. Results For children aged 0～14 years, the prevalence of hearing impairment was 3.48% and the prevalence of hearing disability was 1.84 %. There were statistically differences of the prevalence of hearing disability between children aged 7～ 14 years (2.66 %) and 0～ 6 years (0. 51%), and the differences also in hearing impairment between male children (4.22%) and female children (2.54%). The main causes of hearing impairment were ear diseases (50.00%), non-infective conditions (11.11%), genetic conditions (20.83 %) and unknown causes (27. 77%). 3. 58% of all subjects needed medical or surgical treatment and 2. 32% needed hearing aids. Conolusion The prevalence of hearing disability of children under 14 years old in Guizhou province was higher than that of other cities. The main cause of the hearing impairment of children was otitis media with hereditary deafness also ranked in top.