Secretory otitis media and hearing loss.
Hearing losses at 15 years of age were investigated in a material of 11,780 children born in Northern Finland in 1966 and followed-up since pregnancy. Two samples of the whole material, one representing a sample of 413 children with reported impaired hearing, and the other of 959 children with reported normal hearing were calculated to represent a total material of 11,748 cases. The correlation between the reported hearing and the audiometry results was very good. In the calculated material, 1,708 (14.6%) of the children exhibited a hearing loss exceeding 20 dB in at least one frequency in their school audiograms. The incidence of secretory otitis media as a risk diagnosis among those with impaired hearing was significantly higher than among those with normal hearing. Most of the hearing losses were found in the high frequencies.
Sorri
M
M
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Oulu, Finland.
Rantakallio
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D001299:Audiometry; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005387:Finland; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000209:etiology*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D010034:Otitis Media with Effusion / Q000150:complications*