Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of E.N.T

Background: Hearing is the most essential perceptive sense for individual development especially during childhood, contributing to his ability to interact with other people and with the place where the child lives. Its deprivation can have serious consequences on various aspects, such as speech and language acquisition and pre-reading skills. This study aimed to perform hearing screening of school children between the age of 4 to 7 years old to detect the prevalence, incidence of different types and degrees of HL in this age group. Methods: This study was a cross sectional study that included all children 4 to 7years old in all primary schools in Quweisna City, Monofia govermentry, Egypt in the educational year 2014-2015(no of children=4500) with total number of 9000 ears. All children included in the study underwent otoscopic examination followed by the 1st stage of school based hearing screening. Only children who failed 1st stage of school based hearing screening underwent 2nd stage. Results: Otoscopic ex. revealed (54.2% normal, 45.8% abnormal). Twenty in percent (1800 ears) failed 1st stage of school based hearing screening. Six in percent (540 ears) failed 2nd stage of school based hearing screening. Number of 529 ears were diagnosed as having HL with different degrees as follow: 265 (50.1%) had mild degree, 132 (24.9%) moderate, 85 (16.1%) moderately severe, 40 (7.6%) severe, and 7(1.3%) profound. Of those 529 ears, 427 (80.7%) had CHL, 81 (15.3%) SNHL, 21 (4%) mixed HL. Conclusion: This study revealed less than 6% of children in the study had HL of different types and degrees

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