BACKGROUND Hearing loss is a common and considerable disability that harms educational performance of school children in developing countries like Iran. Lack of a simple and practical screening protocol often deters routine and systematic hearing screening at school entry. METHODS This study was to establish a practical screening model for hearing loss in school-aged children based on a commu...

PURPOSE International Healthy Hearing Program developed by International Special Olympics in Washington DC performs hearing screening during athletics competitions of athletes with mental retardation. The aim of this study was to introduce hearing screening performed according to Special Olympics Incorporated (SOI) Healthy Athletes Program. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study was performed in Poli...

BACKGROUND Hearing loss is common among older adults and has consequences for sufferers, families and society, but there is substantial unmet need for intervention. Screening could expedite intervention and improve outcomes. METHODS We use Markov models to estimate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of potential screening programmes compared with current provision (GP-referral), ...

Objective: To determine the incidence of hearing impairment in a standardized population of neonates seeking care in a tertiary hospital in Northwest India. Universal hearing screening is implemented in many developed countries. However, neither universal screening, nor high risk screening, exists in India. The incidence of hearing loss in India is found to be 1 to 6 per 1000 newborns screened ...

Perinatal HIV infection and congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection may increase the risk for hearing loss. We examined 1,435 infants enrolled in the Surveillance Monitoring of ART Toxicities (SMARTT) study of the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Cohort Study (PHACS) network, a prospective study of the safety of in utero antiretroviral (ARV) exposures. We determined the proportion of perinatally HIV-expos...

Routine screening for hearing impairment in childhood is now widespread in industrial countries, although there is considerable controversy over the most efficient techniques and procedures. In most developing countries, however, routine screening programmes for hearing impairment do not currently exist. The problems involved in implementing screening programmes in developing and industrial cou...

BACKGROUND The high incidence of age-related hearing loss demands accessible, low cost hearing screenings for prevention and hearing health promotion. This study assessed performance of self report (SR) against audiometry, and prevalence of hearing difficulty when screening hearing in middle-aged and younger adults, including smokers and nonsmokers. METHODS Prospective participants (N = 219) ...

INTRODUCTION Access to ear and hearing health is a challenge in developing countries, where the burden of disabling hearing loss is greatest. This study investigated community-based identification of hearing loss using smartphone hearing screening (hearScreen™) operated by community health workers (CHWs) in terms of clinical efficacy and the reported experiences of CHWs. METHOD The study comp...