Rashitha Zumla AS¹* and Dumini De Silva²

¹Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
²Lecturer, Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

*Corresponding Author: Rashitha Zumla AS, Department of Disability Studies, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Received: August 16, 2021; Published: September 11, 2021

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Infant hearing loss is the most prevalent congenital sensory disability posing significant linguistic, socio- emotional, educational and vocational consequences not only to the affected individual, but also in terms long term societal costs (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, 2007). Therefore, the childhood deafness/infant hearing loss need to be diagnosed as early as possible. Midwife is one of the health care professionals responsible for promoting the health of community in Sri Lanka. Midwives can play a vital role in the early hearing detection and intervention process. Due to that, the study focused to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes towards infant hearing loss among midwives.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was implemented on public health midwives working in Medical Officers of Health (MOH) offices under Kalmunai Regional Director of Health Services (RDHS) in Sri Lanka. Purposive sampling method was used to recruit the sample. A self-administered questionnaire which was developed by reviewing previous studies on knowledge and attitude toward infant hearing loss and early intervention among midwives and/or health care professionals was used to collect the data.

Results: Data gathered from 90 midwives demonstrated overall lack of knowledge regarding the risk factors of hearing loss, Newborn Hearing Screening and follow up practices. However, their attitudes towards infant hearing loss were significantly positive.

Conclusion: There is a need to take urgent effort to educate the midwives awareness programs for better implementation of new born hearing screening and prepare the midwives to be an active member in Newborn Hearing Screening program for counselling and educating parents and explaining importance of early identification intervention to parents.

Keywords: Infant Hearing Loss; Newborn Hearing Screening; Knowledge; Attitude; Risk Factors; Midwives; Health Care Professionals

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Citation

Citation: Rashitha Zumla AS and Dumini De Silva. “Knowledge and Attitudes towards Infant Hearing Loss among the Midwives Working in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka". Acta Scientific Otolaryngology 3.10 (2021): 13-21.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Rashitha Zumla AS and Dumini De Silva. 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.