Watcharapol Poonual MD*, Niramon Navacharoen MD**, Jaran Kangsanarak MD**, Sirianong Namwongprom MD, PhD*,***
Affiliation : * Clinical Epidemiology Program, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand ** Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand *** Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Objective : To determine the outcome of early identification and intervention of hearing loss children.
Material and Method: An analytic prospective study. All neonates were screened withTEOAE/ABR. All infants were diag-
nosed and started early intervention at sixth month and followed for hearing and developmental evaluation until eighteen
months of age.
Results : Three thousand one hundred twenty neonates underwent hearing screening tests. One hundred and three infants
had abnormal of 6 months of age and were diagnosed with congenital hearing loss (89 mild hearing loss, 12 moderate
hearing loss, 1 moderate-severe hearing loss and 1 profound hearing loss). They received early intervention (8 hearing aid
fitting (0.3%), 103 auditory training (3.3%), 103 counseling (3.3%) and 103 combine (3.3%) at 6 months of age). During
follow up, eighty nine infants who had abnormal initial hearing tests were found to have normal hearing at eighteen months
of age, Only Fourteen infants (0.4%) had permanent hearing loss. There were 7, 5, 1 and 1 infants in the mild, moderate,
moderate-severe and profound hearing loss groups. The interventions offered to infants with different levels of hearing
impairment were 5 hearing aid fittings (35.7%), 14 auditory training (100%), 14 counseling (100%) and 14 combination
of three methods (100%). The development after 12 months follow up in infants with different levels of hearing impairment
were 14 auditory improvement (100%), 14 speech improvement (100%) and 5 language improvement (35.7%). The common
risk factors ranked in order of frequency are craniofacial anomalies( RR 2.57, 95%CI 1.49-4.43), ototoxic exposure(RR
4.71, 95%CI 1.94-11.46), severe hyperbilirubinemia (RR 2.10, 95%CI 1.08-4.06 ), low APGAR score at 5 minutes (RR 2.42,
95%CI 1.03-5.68) and sepsis (RR 2.02, 95%CI 1.01-4.03).
Conclusion : Continuing evaluation of hearing and development during follow-up is important in children with abnormal
hearing tests. Early intervention can prevent acoustic deprivation and improve language development.
Keywords : Hearing loss, Intervention, Auditory development, Speech development, Language development
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