Mass hearing screening in kindergarten students

Objective: to determine the types of hearing losses identified by mass hear ing screenings in the public school system. Design : prospective observatio nal. Participants: students enrolled in kindergarten in the public school s ystem. Setting: major metropolitan area. Main outcome measures: (1) hearing screening tests performed by speech pathologists using an audiometer in a quiet room; (2) formal audiologic testing including pure tone audiometry, t ympanograms, speech discrimination, and acoustic impedance testing in a sou nd proof booth. Results: 140 students failed hearing screening on two separ ate occasions; 91(65%) underwent formal audiologic testing at Milwaukee Pub lic School, 43% demonstrated conductive hearing losses, 14% demonstrated se nsorineural losses and 43% demonstrated normal hearing. Conclusion: mass he aring screening in the school system (I) is useful for detecting transient conductive hearing losses, (2) detects a significant number of sensorineura l hearing losses and (3) has a very poor follow-through by the families of those students identified with hearing loss through the screening program. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.