title: The hearing profile among learners in schools in the Western Cape, South Africa.
abstract: The hearing profile amongst school learners in the Western Cape was investigated. The University of Cape Town's hearing-screening programme at 11 primary schools (n=1101) was audited and revealed a 13.8% referral rate amongst school-aged children. The possible effects of environmental noise on hearing-screening performance at 500Hz was investigated. When the hearing-screening results at 500Hz were excluded from the audit, the referral rate was reduced from 13.8% to 7.9%. The referral rate for hearing-screening failures amongst the learners in the sample was towards the high end of the range for developing countries (3.3-13.9%). More learners had unilateral than bilateral hearing failures while laterality, gender and geographical differences were minimal. This high referral rate suggests a strong need for hearing-screening of the school-aged population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cape Town, South Africa. cnorthm@gmail.com
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: North-Matthiassen
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D001299:Audiometry; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008485:Medical Audit; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013334:Students