Clinical Diagnostics After Failed Hearing Screening in People With Intellectual Disabilities Do Not Often Take Place.
Anna Wiegand, Philipp Mathmann, Susanne Wasmuth and 20 others
PMID 41545211WHAT IT FOUND
Only 37.5% of people with intellectual disabilities referred for external hearing diagnostics after failed on-site screening actually attended.
Adults were least likely to follow up. Caregivers often did not attempt to book appointments, citing lack of necessity or competing health priorities.
Key findings
01Just over one-third of participants referred for external diagnostics after failing on-site hearing screening actually attended the appointment.
02Referral uptake dropped significantly with age, falling from 50.8% in young children to 24.7% in adults.
03The most common reason for not attending was a failure to even attempt to schedule an appointment (32.9%), followed by caregiver refusal (23.2%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study relied on telephone interviews with caregivers, meaning the data on why appointments were missed is based on self-reported reasons rather than clinical records. External medical reports were rarely available to the researchers, so the actual diagnostic outcomes of those who did attend are largely unknown. The tracking intervention was applied to only a small subset of non-attendees, so the effectiveness of proactive follow-up is based on a very small sample (8 of 48).
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Innovation Fund of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA, Germany).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the low uptake as a sign that hearing loss is not present or not important. The study shows that even when screening fails and a referral is made, the vast majority of people do not get the diagnostic follow-up they need, leaving potential hearing loss untreated.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →