Audiologic and demographic characteristics of deaf people in an Iranian population

Introduction: Hearing impairment has a large economic and social burden on societies. Determination of related demographic and audiologic characteristics of deaf patients can help to understand the related factors to hearing impairment and prevent it. In this study we assessed the demographic and audiologic characteristics of deaf patients in a population in the north of Iran. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional research was performed on 300 deaf members of deaf association of Rasht city(Iran) during 2017 and 2018. The results of pure tone auditory examination and gender, age, residency location, familial marriage in parents, family history of deafness, educational level of parents, marital status, economic and social condition, past medical history, the reason of deafness, the number of their family members and their functional status were recorded and analysed. Results: 78.7% of the deaf persons had a large family and 35.7% were illiterate, 29.7% of their parents had familial marriage, 68.3% had no independent job, 78% of deaf people were poor. 66.7% had high self-steam and 62.3% had a proprietary skill, 21.7% had family history of deafness. 79.7% had congenital deafness. The most common causes were febrile seizure and mump. Additionally, with increasing the level of mother education the chance of hearing loss decreased and with increasing in the number of family members and the presence of past medical disorders the chance of hearing loss increased. Conclusion: The hearing loss is more common in large, poor family with low members and the history of the disease and low educational level of mothers. The most common cause is congenital cause. Most patients had not functional independence and independent job, but most of them had high self-stem and one proprietary.