Background: Hearing is the most essential perceptive sense for individual development especially during childhood, contributing to his ability to interact with other people and with the place where the child lives. Its deprivation can have serious consequences on various aspects, such as speech and language acquisition and pre-reading skills [1]. This study aimed to perform hearing screening of school children between the age of 4 to 8 years old to detect the prevalence, incidence of different types and degree of hearing loss in this age group.
Methods: This study was a cross sectional study that included all children 4 to 7years old in all primary schools in Quesnay City, Minufiyah govern entry, Egypt in the period from November 2014 to March 2016 (no of children=4500) with total number of 9000 ears. All children included in the study underwent otoscopic examination followed by two stages of school based hearing screening. Referral for full audiological evaluation for children who failed the 2nd stage of school based hearing rescreening.
Results: Otoscopic examinations revealed (54.2% normal, 21.3% impacted wax, 13.6% congested tm, 10.8% perforated tm). Twenty in percent (1800 ears) failed 1st stage of school based hearing screening. Six in percent (540 ears)failed 2nd stage of school based hearing rescreening. Number of 529 ears were diagnosed as having hearing loss as follow : 427 (80.7%) CHL, 81 (15.3%) SNHL, 21 (4%) mixed HL of different degrees as: 265 (50.1%) mild, 132 (24.9%) moderate, 85 (16.1%) moderately severe, 40 (7.6%) severe, and 7(1.3%) had profound degree of HL.
Conclusion: A systematic screening program with correct equipment, trained personnel and adequate follow up services will allow children with ESHL(educationally significant hearing loss) to be accurately diagnosed and managed to provide them with equal hearing opportunities.
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