Abstract

Background: Hearing impairment is a condition where the ability to detect certain frequencies of sound is completely or partially impaired. In the early years of life, hearing ability is critical for the development of speech, language, and cognition. The prevalence of hearing loss associated with neurological conditions in preschool children is poorly portrayed.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of hearing loss in children below 5 years of age associated with neurological deficits by doing Otoacoustic Emissions.

Methodology: A prospective study of preschool children from KLE’S Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belagavi was undertaken from December 2018 to December 2019. The children were subjected to distortion product evoked otoacoustic emission (DPOAEs). A total of 108 patients underwent the first screening, 8 patients lost for follow up at the end of 3 months and were excluded from the study.

Results: All the 100 children were divided into 3 age groups, as less than or equal to 2 years, 2 - 4 years and more than or equal to 4 years. 20 (20%) children were in the first group, 23 (23%) in the second group and majority 57 (57%) in the third group respectively. 6 children had a family history of hearing loss and 13 children had a history of consanguineous marriage. Bilateral hearing loss was detected in 10% of children with neurological deficits in the first screening. In the second screening, 4 children were confirmed to have hearing loss, hence the prevalence of hearing loss was estimated to be 4%.

Keywords: Hearing Impairment; Neurological Deficits; Otoacoustic Emission; Screening; Speech and Language Development

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Citation

Citation: TVRK Prasad., et al. “An Epidemiological Study of Deafness in Children Below 5 Years Age Group Associated with Neurological Deficits - A Tertiary Hospital-Based Prospective Study Using Otoacoustic Emissions". Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 2.5 (2020): 15-18.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 TVRK Prasad., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.