Comparison of school-based hearing screening protocols and the identification of noise induced hearing loss in adolescents

School-based hearing screening programs have been commonplace in the United States since the 1960’s. Historically, the enrollment of children in the public school system afforded the first opportunity to have access to a large population of children in order to screen for hearing disorders. Such programs were primarily designed to identify hearing losses that necessitated medical referral and treatment and/or the students with educationally significant hearing loss. Typically, the screening approach focused on capturing children with congenital hearing loss and those with conductive hearing losses due to medical conditions such as otitis media. In the contemporary era, infants receive their initial hearing screening before hospital discharge, and the educational setting serves as a subsequent opportunity to identify hearing loss that has a later onset due to various genetic and environmental influences. Certainly, noise is one environmental hazard that may contribute to the later onset of hearing loss and tinnitus in children and adolescents.