title: Slight/mild sensorineural hearing loss in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal was to determine the prevalence and effects of slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss among children in elementary school.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional, cluster-sample survey of 6581 children (response: 85%; grade 1: n = 3367; grade 5: n = 3214) in 89 schools in Melbourne, Australia, was performed. Slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was defined as a low-frequency pure-tone average across 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz and/or a high-frequency pure-tone average across 3, 4, and 6 kHz of 16 to 40 dB hearing level in the better ear, with air/bone-conduction gaps of < 10 dB. Parents reported children's health-related quality of life and behavior. Each child with slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, matched to 2 normally hearing children (low-frequency pure-tone average and high-frequency pure-tone average of < or = 15 dB hearing level in both ears), completed standardized assessments. Whole-sample comparisons were adjusted for type of school, grade level, and gender, and matched-sample comparisons were adjusted for nonverbal IQ scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-five children (0.88%) had slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. Children with and without sensorineural hearing loss scored similarly in language (mean: 97.2 vs 99.7), reading (101.1 vs 102.8), behavior (8.4 vs 7.0), and parent- and child-reported child health-related quality of life (77.6 vs 80.0 and 76.1 vs 77.0, respectively), but phonologic short-term memory was poorer (91.0 vs 102.8) in the sensorineural hearing loss group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss was lower than reported in previous studies. There was no strong evidence that slight/mild bilateral sensorineural hearing loss affects adversely language, reading, behavior, or health-related quality of life in children who are otherwise healthy and of normal intelligence.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Rd, Parkville 3052, Australia. melissa.wake@rch.org.au
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wake
authors.forename: Sherryn
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tobin
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cone-Wesson
authors.forename: Hans-Henrik
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Dahl
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gillam
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McCormick
authors.forename: Zeffie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Poulakis
authors.forename: Field W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Rickards
authors.forename: Kerryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: Obioha C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Ukoumunne
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index