Program badań przesiewowych słuchu w szkołach podstawowych z terenów wiejskich

Introduction: Undiagnosed hearing impairments limit a child’s ability to learn. Hearing screenings for school-age children help detect educationally significant hearing loss and prevent negative effects on academic achievement. Aim of the study was estimation of the prevalence of hearing disorders in school-aged children from rural areas in Poland. Material and methods: Participants in the study were 44 323 children (21 169 girls and 23 154 boys) aged 6 to 9 years from 4 414 schools in rural areas of Poland. The air conduction hearing threshold for frequencies 0.5–8 kHz was determined. Hearing screening was performed using the Sensory Testing Platform. In addition, parents completed an audiological questionnaire. Results: An abnormal screening result was found in 19.5% of the children tested. Most of the hearing loss was unilateral, i.e. 63.6%. Only 14% of parents noticed a hearing problem in their child. Conclusions: The paper presents estimates of tonal audiometry screening in Polish children from rural areas. It was shown that hearing problems are common in this population. The study has important implications for clinical practice and health policy. It indi-cates the need of systematic monitoring of hearing condition in children and increasing parents’ and educators’ awareness of importance of hearing loss. Further studies among children from urban areas are needed to compare the prevalence of hearing loss in children from different backgrounds.