Hearing loss in children of an underprivileged community of Delhi

Abstract

Background: Nearly 360 million people in the world have disabling hearing loss, out of which 32 million are children. In India, total number of person with deafness were 63 million of which 26.4 million is contributed by school aged children. Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) is the commonest cause of persistent mild to moderate hearing impairment in children. Methods: The study was done among 5-14 years old children residing at Kalyanpuri, a resettlement colony of East Delhi. A convenient sample of 1398 children were studied and out of them 102 children were found to have hearing impairment on screening by tuning fork. Screen positive children were subjected to pure tone audiometry to confirm deafness. Results: Out of total 1398 children studied, 744 (53.2%) were boys and 654 (46.8%) girls. Prevalence of hearing loss was 3%. The main causes of hearing loss found were CSOM (48.8%). Hearing loss was significantly associated with unsafe ear cleaning practices. Conclusion: It is evident from the present study that causes of hearing loss in children is mostly preventable. Raising awareness of community for early diagnosis of ear problems is important to bring down the burden of hearing loss and deafness.

Keywords

• hearing loss
• hearing impairment and children
• middle ear infection
• ear cleaning practices