Minimal and Mild Hearing Loss in Children: Association with Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Communication Problems.

This was a one-time school study. It cannot show that hearing loss caused the poorer test scores. Data were analysed for 1457 of 1638 children who took part, so some participants did not contribute reliable thresholds. The researchers did not use bone conduction tests. Some children with borderline hearing may have had temporary conductive hearing loss from middle ear fluid rather than permanent sensorineural loss. Only 1 kHz and 4 kHz thresholds were measured. Testing was done in a quiet school room rather than a sound booth, so low-frequency hearing and exact thresholds may have been missed. The study did not correct for multiple comparisons. Some significant differences could be chance findings. The caregiver reports did not differ between groups, while objective tests did. They were based on opinion, and the study could not distinguish how different types of hearing loss affected those reports. The differences between groups were small and highly overlapping. They describe group averages, not certainty for any one child. No intervention was tested. The study cannot show whether hearing aids, classroom amplification, or listening strategies help children with minimal or mild hearing loss.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Do not use these results to decide that a child needs hearing aids or classroom amplification. The study found small group differences on objective tests, but it did not test any treatment and cannot show that hearing loss caused the poorer scores.