Effect of Consanguinity on the Audio Profile of Non Syndromic Sensorineural Hearing Impaired Children: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: The incidence of bilateral sensorineural hearing loss is quite notable in live births worldwide. Among the aetiologies, the primary aetiology is thought to be genetic, followed by non heritable and unknown. Aim: To study the effect of consanguinity on audiological profile in children presented with non syndromic sensorineural hearing loss. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat, McGANN Teaching District Hospital (Shimoga Institute of Medical Sciences), Shivamogga, Karnataka, India, from January 2019 to December 2020, among 95 children with non syndromic sensorineural hearing loss. A Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) test was done for each patient both air conduction and bone conduction thresholds were tested using different transducers. An audiogram was collected and the degree of hearing loss of each patient was analysed. Statistical tests were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 34.0, Kruskal-Wallis test, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for comparing the difference in PTA followed by the Mann-Whitney U test. Results: The mean age of the study population was 9.7 years; 39 subjects were female and 56 were male. The PTA among the study population showed asymmetric audiograms in 17 (17.9%) children. A majority 60 (63.1%) of the participants were born out of consanguineous marriage. Total 80 (84.2%) children had bilateral hearing loss, among which 58 (72.5%) were cases of bilateral profound. One-way ANOVA showed that there was an overall significant difference between the consanguinity and non consanguinity groups and post-hoc analysis with the Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant difference between the different degrees of consanguineous marriage. Conclusion: Consanguinity affects the audio profile (PTA) among the non syndromic hearing impaired children.

Keywords

• audiogram
• bilateral hearing loss
• pure tone audiometry