Effectiveness of using the program “Frequency of audiological monitoring in children of the first year of life with risk factors for hearing loss and deafness”

Abstract

Purpose. To present data on testing the program, which allows optimizing audiological monitoring in children with risk factors for the development of hearing loss and deafness.Characteristics of children and research methods. 217 children who underwent audiological monitoring at the consultative аnd diagnostic center in Morozov Children’s City Clinical Hospital were examined. The research was a prospective longitudinal study with cross-sectional elements. The children were divided into 2 groups. The first group (main) consisted of 136 children who underwent audiological monitoring based on the developed program, and the second (comparison) included 81 children (the program was not applied). Statistical software packages SPSS and Epi info were used to process the obtained data.Results. In the main group, the most common age of children with primary treatment was (3.0 ± 0.5) months, and in the comparison group — (6.0 ± 0.5) months. In the main group, in the period of (3.0 ± 0.5) months of life, out of 129 children, neurosensory hearing loss was detected in 27 (21.0%), in the period of (6.0 ± 0.5) in 19 of 134 (14.0%), and in the periods of (9.0 ± 0.5) and (12.0 ± 0.5) in 19 (13.4%) and 5 of 136 children, respectively. In 22 children out of 136, hearing decline was transient. In the comparison group at the age of (3.0 ± 0.5) months, neurosensory hearing loss was detected in 2 children, at (6.0 ± 0.5) months in 4 out of 15, at (9.0 ± 0.5) in 1 child out of 25, and at (12.0 ± 0.5) in 9 patients out of 35 children.Conclusion. The application of the developed program will allow neonatologists and primary care physicians to fully comply with the deadlines for audiological monitoring.