School-based hearing screening of first-grade students in Saudi Arabia: A pilot study.
Noura I Alothman, Ahmad A Alanazi
PMID 39625087WHAT IT FOUND
School screening found 26.3% of first-graders failed hearing tests, mostly at low frequencies or due to middle ear issues.
However, parent and teacher questionnaires were poor predictors of these failures, missing most children with hearing loss.
Key findings
0126.3% of the 308 students screened failed the pure-tone audiometry hearing test.
02Parent and teacher questionnaires had poor discrimination capacity, failing to accurately identify children who did not pass the hearing screen.
03Among students who failed the hearing screen, 46.9% also had abnormal middle ear function on tympanometry.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample size (308 students) limits the generalisability of the prevalence rates. The study used a screening protocol (20 dB HL pass criterion, including 0.5 kHz) that may overestimate the prevalence of significant hearing loss compared to diagnostic standards. No diagnostic audiometric evaluation was conducted for students who failed the screen, so the true nature and severity of hearing loss are unknown. The questionnaires were not validated prior to the study due to the pilot nature and small sample. Screening was conducted in winter, which may have inflated the rate of middle ear abnormalities due to seasonal upper respiratory infections.
Declared interests
The authors declared no funding or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 26.3% failure rate as the true prevalence of permanent hearing loss. This figure reflects screening failures, many of which were likely due to temporary middle ear issues or the sensitive low-frequency screening criteria used.