title: [Hearing loss among premature and full-term infants in Rinköbing county. Results of tone and speech audiometry].
abstract: A material of 101 out of 111 premature infants admitted with gestational ages less than or equal to 35 weeks and birth weights less than or equal to 2,000 g to the Paediatric Department, Herning Central Hospital during the years 1977-1980 and 101 infants born at term and matched for age and sex were investigated with pure-tone audiometry in quiet surroundings and speech-audiometry in noisy surroundings in the Ringkøbing County Audiological Department in Holstebro. Where all frequencies were concerned, we found slightly more children from the premature group with hearing thresholds greater than 15 dB HL. One premature child had been equipped with a hearing aid (HA) at the age of 6 1/2 years on account of a hearing threshold in the best ear of 55 dB HL for all frequencies. Two children in the premature group had unrecognized hearing loss in the best ear between 30-40 dB HL for the average of the frequencies 500, 1,000 and 2,000 Hz. One of these children was equipped with a hearing aid. None of the children in the control group had hearing loss justifying a hearing aid. Good agreement was found between speech audiometry in noisy surroundings carried out with the Danish test material "Dantale" and pure-tone audiometry. In this group, speech-audiometry did not provide further information as compared with pure-tone audiometry. Although only few children with severe hearing defects were found, it is important that these are detected as soon as possible in view of their intellectual development. Premature infants constitute a risk group for defective hearing.
authors.affiliation: Paediatrisk afdeling, og Herning Centralsygehus.
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Birkebaek
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Tommerup
mesh_terms: D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology; D012307:Risk Factors