BACKGROUND Three mutations in the DFNA5 gene have been described in three families with autosomal dominant non-syndromic hearing impairment. Although these mutations are different at the genomic DNA level, they all lead to skipping of exon 8 at the mRNA level. We hypothesise that hearing impairment associated with DFNA5 is caused by a highly unusual mechanism, in which skipping of one specific ...

The aim of this review is to provide an updated overview of hereditary hearing loss, with special attention to the etiological diagnosis of sensorineural hearing loss, the genes most frequently mutated in our environment, the techniques available for their analysis and the clinical implications of genetic diagnosis. More than 60% of childhood sensorineural hearing loss is genetic. In adults, th...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of World Health Organization-defined chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) and mild hearing impairment in a population representative sample of school-entry age children in rural Malawi. A secondary objective was to explore factors associated with CSOM in this population. METHODS We performed a community-based cross-sectional study of children aged 4-6 y...

OBJECTIVES To assess the effects of hearing impairment on health-service use in an elderly population, controlling for factors associated with hearing difficulties known to affect utilization. METHODS Diagnoses of hearing impairment, depression, and chronic illnesses were used in hierarchical regression procedures to predict the volume and probability of any service use among 1,436 randomly s...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE hearing impairment is common in older adults and has been implicated in the risk of disability and mortality. We examined the association between hearing impairment and risk of incident disability and all-cause mortality. DESIGN AND SETTING prospective cohort of community-dwelling older men aged 63-85 followed up for disability over 2 years and for all-cause mortality...

: Hearing impairment has been a major disability challenge globally and is considered threat to quality education. Adolescent school girls with hearing speech challenges are group of disabled who needs special care specifically during breast self-examination (BSE).