Prevalence of permanent childhood hearing impairment in the United Kingdom and implications for universal neonatal hearing screening: questionnaire based ascertainment study.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the prevalence of confirmed permanent childhood hearing impairment and its profile across age and degree of impairment in the United Kingdom.


METHODS
Retrospective total ascertainment through sources in the health and education sectors by postal questionnaire.


METHODS
Hospital based otology and audiology departments, community health clinics, education services for hearing impaired children.


METHODS
Children born from 1980 to 1995, resident in United Kingdom in 1998, with severe permanent childhood hearing impairment (hearing level in the better ear >40 dB averaged over 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz).


METHODS
Numbers of cases with date of birth and severity of impairment converted to prevalences for each annual birth cohort (cases/1000 live births) and adjusted for under ascertainment.


RESULTS
26 000 notifications ascertained 17 160 individual children. Prevalence rose from 0.91 (95% confidence interval 0.85 to 0.98) for 3 year olds to 1.65 (1.62 to 1.68) for children aged 9-16 years. Adjustment for under ascertainment increased estimates to 1.07 (1.03 to 1.12) and 2.05 (2.02 to 2.08). Comparison with previous studies showed that prevalence increases with age, rather than declining with year of birth.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of confirmed permanent childhood hearing impairment increases until the age of 9 years to a level higher than previously estimated. Relative to current yields of universal neonatal hearing screening in the United Kingdom, which are close to 1/1000 live births, 50-90% more children are diagnosed with permanent childhood hearing impairment by the age of 9 years. Paediatric audiology services must have the capacity to achieve early identification and confirmation of these additional cases.
Fortnum
H M
HM
MRC Institute of Hearing Research, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD. hf@ihr.mrc.ac.uk
Summerfield
A Q
AQ
Marshall
D H
DH
Davis
A C
AC
Bamford
J M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology