Assessment of the Hearing Status of School-Age Children from Rural and Urban Areas of Mid-Eastern Poland

Edyta Pilka, W. Wiktor Jedrzejczak, Krzysztof Kochanek, Malgorzata Pastucha and Henryk Skarzynski
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Edyta Pilka: Department of Experimental Audiology, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Mochnackiego 10, 02-042 Warsaw, Poland
W. Wiktor Jedrzejczak: Department of Experimental Audiology, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Mochnackiego 10, 02-042 Warsaw, Poland
Krzysztof Kochanek: Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Mochnackiego 10, 02-042 Warsaw, Poland
Malgorzata Pastucha: Department of Experimental Audiology, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Mochnackiego 10, 02-042 Warsaw, Poland
Henryk Skarzynski: Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Mochnackiego 10, 02-042 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: (1) Background: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of hearing loss in school-age children from rural and urban areas of mid-eastern Poland using standard audiological tests—pure tone audiometry (PTA), impedance audiometry (IA), and otoacoustic emissions (OAEs). (2) Methods: Data were collected from a group of 250 children aged 8 to 13, made up of 122 children from urban areas and 128 children from rural areas of mid-eastern Poland. Hearing was assessed in each of the subjects by means of PTA, IA (tympanometry), and transient-evoked OAEs (TEOAEs). Otoscopy was also performed. (3) Results: There were significantly fewer abnormal results in children from urban than rural areas: they were, respectively, 10.1% and 23.1% for IA, 3% and 9.7% for PTA, and 17.3% and 31.8% for TEOAEs. For hearing-impaired ears in rural areas (failed TEOAE), hearing thresholds were, on average, 11.5 dB higher at 0.5 kHz than for children in urban areas. Comparison of each PTA result with the corresponding IA showed that all cases of hearing loss were related to malfunction of the middle ear. (4) Conclusions: The results of all three hearing tests were significantly worse in children from rural areas compared to those from urban areas. This indicates that audiological healthcare in rural areas needs improvement and that universal hearing screening programs for school-age children would be helpful.

Keywords: pure tone audiometry; otoacoustic emissions; TEOAE; tympanometry; hearing screening (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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