Otoacoustic emissions as a hearing screening tool in 431 children aged 1 to 12 years-old

Abstract

Introduction: The National Policy on Health Hearing advocates screening and monitoring of hearing in order to organize line of care for comprehensive health care for preschool and school children. Objective: To performe a comparative analysis between the results of tonal and vocal audiometry, tympanometry, and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), and to suggest the use of TEOAE as a clinical tool for hearing screening in children under five years-old. Methods: Cross-sectional study approved by local ethics committee (CEP ME-UFRJ). 431 children ranging from 1 and 12 years-old were divided into two samples: 196 children from 1 to 5 years-old and 235 between 6 and 12 years-old. The group between 1 and 5 years-old was submitted to tympanometry and TEOAE. The other group (6 to 12 years-old) was submitted to tonal and vocal audiometry, tympanometry and TEOAE. Results: Among younger children (1 to 5 years-old) 17.3% presented some hearing impairment; and among older children (6 to 12 years-old) only 3.4% had some hearing impairment. Conclusions: For the high incidence of hearing disorders found in children aged 1-5 years old, we conclude that the use of TEOAE is highly efficient in detecting hearing impairment, when used with tympanometry in order to screening and monitoring preschool and school children