THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PARENTAL VARIABLES ON THE EARLY DETECTION OF PEDIATRIC HEARING IMPAIRMENTS - RESULTS OF A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY WITH PARENTS OF HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN

Despite significant improvements in early detection of hearing losses in children, a relatively long interval still exists from initial conc ern by families to definite audiological identification. The aim of ou r retrospective cross-sectional study was to identify parental factors contributing to the delay of early detection. The parents of 70 heari ng-impaired children were interviewed. All children were fitted with h earing aids in our clinical and had no additional physical or cognitiv e disabilities. At an average age of 19.5 months, parents or family do ctors noticed first signs of a possible hearing impairment. On average it then took an additional 7.2 months until hearing impairment was di agnosed by an expert and the necessary first steps taken for rehabilit ation (fitting of hearing aids).Significantly, total hearing loss or p rofound hearing impairments were detected earlier than mild or moderat e hearing impairments. In addition to hearing loss, parental education correlated significantly with an earlier start of rehabilitation. Sta tistical analysis revealed that children with hearing-impaired close r elatives as well as first-born children tended to be diagnosed later. To further improve secondary prevention of hearing loss,the competence of specific parental groups should be taken into consideration.