title: Hearing and hearing loss in 5-year-old children. Pure-tone thresholds and the effect of acute otitis media.
abstract: Air and bone conduction pure-tone thresholds of 420 unselected urban children were measured with standard clinical audiometry. The mean of air conduction pure-tone averages (average threshold at 0.5, 1 and 2 kHz) was 8.6 dB HL in girls and 8.3 dB HL in boys. In only 5 ears (0.6%), was this average greater than or equal to 35 dB HL. The threshold greater than or equal to 35 dB HL at 4 kHz was found in 1.4% of the ears and at 8 kHz in 4.1%. The bone conduction threshold greater than 20 dB HL at any of the frequencies from 0.5 to 4 kHz was very rare, and only once, at 4 kHz, was it greater than 35 dB HL. Earlier attacks of acute otitis media seemed to have only a marginal long-term effect on air conduction hearing, and an almost negligible effect on bone conduction hearing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Tampere University Central Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karma
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sipilä
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rahko
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000399:Air Pressure; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001844:Bone Conduction; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012016:Reference Values