Study of Hearing Impairment in School-Going Children of Ghaziabad

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Hearing is one of the traditional five senses that is also the fastest sense. Inadequate hearing acuity especially during early age has serious effects on the development of a child’s personality. According to World Health Organization, around 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss and of these ~34 million are children. Hearing loss in children may occur due to several reasons, but ~60% of childhood hearing loss occurs from preventable causes. An early detection of these conditions plays an important role in reduction in magnitude of this problem. Aims and Objectives The motive of this study is to estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment among school-going children in Ghaziabad on the basis of otological findings and tuning fork tests. Materials and Methods A random sample of 500 school-going children between the ages of 6 to 14 years was selected from children attending ENT OPD in Santosh Hospital, Ghaziabad, over a period of 8 months from July 2019 till February 2020. Results and Conclusion Prevalence rate encountered in this study was 13%, with unilateral hearing loss being more common than bilateral. The commonest cause was found to be cerumen. A higher prevalence was found in children from semiurban and low socioeconomic background. Since the commonest cause is preventable and readily correctable by proper management, early detection can reduce the burden of this disability.