Parental knowledge and attitudes to childhood hearing loss and hearing services in Qassim, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Successful audiology service delivery depends on support from the community, and agreement to utilize hearing healthcare programs. Assessment of parents' awareness regarding hearing loss (HL) and audiology services is necessary for the development of suitable hearing programs for children. Previous studies reported that early detection and intervention for hearing problems are typically strongly supported by parents. The current study sought to evaluate parents' knowledge and attitudes regarding childhood HL and hearing services. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at five centers in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. A self-report questionnaire was administered to collect demographic data in addition to 31 questions regarding the knowledge and attitudes of parents toward HL. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21 was used for data analysis. A pvalue cut-off point of 0.05 at 95% CI was used to determine statistical significance. The analyses examined the association between socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and attitudes toward HL using chi-square tests. Results: Overall, participants included in this study were 243 participants. Of these, 105 (43.2%) were fathers, and 138 (56.8%) were mothers. Ages ranged from 21 to 60+ years. Assessment of the prevalence of various aspects of knowledge and attitudes among parents toward childhood HL revealed that 103 participants (42.4%) possessed good knowledge, while 140 participants (57.6%) possessed poor knowledge. In contrast, the attitude analysis revealed that 224 participants (92.2%) expressed positive attitudes, while only 19 participants (07.8%) showed a negative attitude regarding audiology services. We found a significant association between age group and knowledge (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Most parents in our sample possessed poor knowledge regarding childhood HL. However, most parents expressed positive attitudes regarding audiology services. The current findings suggest a need to increase awareness among parents regarding childhood HL.

Knowledge and Attitudes of Parents towards Childhood Hearing Loss and Pediatric Hearing Services in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

“…Both parents have reported good knowledge regarding the statement "babies can be born with hearing loss." Similar findings were reported in the study done in Saudi Arabia [9], whereas contradicting responses were reported from the Solomon Islands and India [11,12].…”

“…The remaining six questions targeted the attitude of parents towards seeking timely audiological services. The questions were phrased after reviewing the existing studies on the knowledge and attitudes of parents towards infant and childhood hearing loss [9,11]. Certain risk factors were adopted from the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) positional statement [15].…”

“…Studies have been conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of parents towards hearing loss in many countries. In the middle east, particularly in Saudi Arabia, a recent study revealed that less than 50% of parents have adequate knowledge about hearing loss, whereas approximately 93% of parents showed a positive attitude towards audiology related services [9]. However, contradictory findings were reported in another study-60% of the parents and family members reported a fair degree of knowledge about topics such as high fever, ear discharge, and noise exposure [10].…”

“…Studies report that parents showed a positive attitude and favored seeking audiological services [9]. Most parents agreed to have newborn hearing screening done at birth.…”

“…However, a concern remained among parents regarding the use of hearing aids for their child [12]. Many studies have reported poor community awareness regarding infant hearing loss [9,13,14]. However, with the current advances in technology and social media, there may be grounds for raising awareness within the community.…”