肯尼亚一项探索顺势疗法治疗听力损失儿童可行性的试点研究

IF 1.7 4区医学 Q3 INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE

European Journal of Integrative Medicine Pub Date : 2025-05-02 DOI:10.1016/j.eujim.2025.102487

J Sherr , J Davy , P Fibert

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引用次数: 0

摘要

严重听力障碍对儿童的安全、学习能力、社交能力以及随后的谋生能力产生重大影响，特别是在几乎没有常规治疗的撒哈拉以南非洲地区，其发病率高于高收入国家，而且还在不断增长。听力的微小改善可以提高生活质量和安全性。非洲顺势疗法对失聪学生的先前治疗表明，顺势疗法治疗可能与听力增加有关。这项初步研究旨在评估进行一项关于顺势疗法治疗严重听力障碍儿童的有效性的全面研究的可行性。方法在肯尼亚的一所聋人学校，对听力受损儿童的家长进行为期9个月的顺势疗法治疗。可行性考虑了治疗的成本、安全性、耐受性和可交付性；招聘;研究设计和结果测量（适宜性、敏感性、可靠性、可接受性）。测量的结果是：通过听力测试（基线时的分贝（dB）测量值（两个基线评分的平均值）和9个月时每个频率的比较）进行听力水平变化；教师和学生的定性报告，声音和听力测试。结果41名听力受损儿童接受了长达9个月的顺势疗法治疗，并完成了基线和9个月的测试，其中8名由于学习困难而无法遵守听力学测试。73%的学生听力有所提高，其中9名学生（39%）记录了几种频率的变化，学生和老师的报告和/或语音/言语测试证实了这一点。需要对试验设计进行一些修改：长时间缺课需要治疗和测试灵活性；听力测试的挑战需要使用并与其他结果进行比较。结论：在这些结果的基础上，现在需要进行强有力的、更大规模的研究，包括随机化（可能在学校水平）、比较（无治疗）和盲法（结果评估）。建议测量现实生活中重要方面的变化，如伤害发生率、学术能力和生活质量。

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A pilot study exploring the feasibility of homeopathic treatment for children with hearing loss in Kenya

Introduction

Severe hearing impairment has a significant impact on children’s safety, ability to learn, socialise, and subsequently earn a living, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where there is little conventional treatment, and rates are greater than high-income countries and growing. Small improvements in hearing can improve quality of life and safety. Prior treatment of deaf students by Homeopathy for Health in Africa suggested homeopathic treatment may be associated with increased hearing. This pilot study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a fully powered study of the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment for children with severe hearing impairment.

Methods

At a school for the deaf in Kenya, parents of children with impaired hearing were offered homeopathic treatment for their children for up to 9 months. Feasibility considerations were the cost, safety, tolerability and deliverability of treatment; recruitment; study design and outcome measurement (suitability, sensitivity, reliability, acceptability). Outcomes measured were: hearing level change via audiometric testing (decibel (dB) measurements at baseline (average of two baseline scores) and 9 months compared at each frequency); qualitative reports by teacher and student, voice and hearing tests.

Results

Forty-one children with impaired hearing and parental approval received homeopathic treatment for up to nine months and completed baseline and nine-month tests, but eight were unable to comply with audiology testing due to learning difficulties. Increase in hearing was registered in 73 %, with nine students (39 %) registering changes at several frequencies, corroborated by student and teacher reports and/or voice/speech tests. Some modification of the trial design is needed: prolonged school absences require treatment and testing flexibility; audiology testing challenges necessitate use of and comparison with other outcomes.

Conclusions

To build on these results, robust, larger scale studies incorporating randomisation (possibly at school level), a comparator (no treatment), and blinding (of outcome assessment) are now needed. Measurement of change in important real-life aspects such as injury incidence, academic ability and quality of life are recommended.

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来源期刊

European Journal of Integrative Medicine INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

4.00%

发文量

102

审稿时长

33 days

期刊介绍： The European Journal of Integrative Medicine (EuJIM) considers manuscripts from a wide range of complementary and integrative health care disciplines, with a particular focus on whole systems approaches, public health, self management and traditional medical systems. The journal strives to connect conventional medicine and evidence based complementary medicine. We encourage submissions reporting research with relevance for integrative clinical practice and interprofessional education. EuJIM aims to be of interest to both conventional and integrative audiences, including healthcare practitioners, researchers, health care organisations, educationalists, and all those who seek objective and critical information on integrative medicine. To achieve this aim EuJIM provides an innovative international and interdisciplinary platform linking researchers and clinicians. The journal focuses primarily on original research articles including systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials, other clinical studies, qualitative, observational and epidemiological studies. In addition we welcome short reviews, opinion articles and contributions relating to health services and policy, health economics and psychology.