Adverse perinatal conditions in hearing‐impaired children in a developing country

Abstract

Prevailing adverse perinatal conditions in developing countries have been associated with substantial mortality, but little evidence exists on their impact on permanent childhood disabilities and morbidity due to limitations in clinical investigations and medical records. This study aims to identify the possible association between parent-reported adverse perinatal conditions and permanent hearing loss, in order to establish service needs within current maternal and child health programmes. Structured questionnaires were administered to 363 parents of deaf children and 309 parents of normal-hearing children in an inner city area of Lagos, Nigeria. The parents were from all social classes. After a multivariable logistic regression analysis, birth asphyxia [OR 20.45; 95% CI 6.26, 66.85], difficult delivery [OR 8.09; 95% CI 2.76, 23.68], neonatal jaundice [OR 2.45; 95% CI 1.25, 4.79] and neonatal seizures [OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.09, 4.85] were associated with permanent hearing loss. Consanguineous marriages [OR 6.69; 95% CI 2.72, 16.46] and family history of deafness [OR 6.27; 95% CI 2.07, 18.97] also emerged as additional risk factors for permanent hearing loss. In addition, parents of children in state-owned schools for the deaf were significantly more likely to belong to higher social classes compared with normal-hearing children in mainstream state-owned schools. There is a need to incorporate services for the early detection of permanent hearing loss into current maternal and child healthcare programmes in developing countries.

Profound childhood hearing loss in a South Africa cohort: Risk profile, diagnosis and age of intervention

“…Two separate Nigerian studies indicated a prevalence of 4.9% in a sample of children diagnosed with SNHL [45] and 13.5% in a cohort of children with severe-profound hearing loss [44]. Hyperbilirubinemia has been associated as the most commonly reported risk factor for ANSD, varying between 30 to 70% [38,[46][47][48].…”

Non‐hospital delivery and permanent congenital and early‐onset hearing loss in a developing country

“…24 Delayed neonatal adaptation ('birth asphyxia') was indexed by parental report of 'delayed cry' of the baby at birth for more than 2 minutes or the application of prolonged physical stimulation to bring about respiration in the newborn baby. 25,26 Parental reporting of jaundice in the first week of life requiring hospital admission for phototherapy or exchange blood transfusion was considered reliable being an episodic event. 25 Eliciting neonatal jaundice not necessitating hospital referral or admission was also considered reliable in dark skin babies because of its high prevalence and the familiar discolouration of the sclera and mucous membranes as well as the traditional therapies commonly associated with this condition in this population.…”

“…25,26 Parental reporting of jaundice in the first week of life requiring hospital admission for phototherapy or exchange blood transfusion was considered reliable being an episodic event. 25 Eliciting neonatal jaundice not necessitating hospital referral or admission was also considered reliable in dark skin babies because of its high prevalence and the familiar discolouration of the sclera and mucous membranes as well as the traditional therapies commonly associated with this condition in this population. Neonatal jaundice in this study is abbreviated as NNJ and used interchangeably with hyperbilirubinaemia.…”

GJB2 and MTRNR1 contributions in children with hearing impairment from Northern Cameroon

“…In terms of the etiology of hearing loss, more than 50% of cases are due to hereditary factors, with at least 120 genetic loci involved in nonsyndromic hearing loss (NSHL) and greater than 60 known for autosomal recessive NSHL ( Smith et al, 2005;Samanich et al, 2007). The rest of the cases are attributable to prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal life conditions (Lasisi et al, 2006;Olusanya & Okolo, 2006;Olusanya & Solanke, 2009).…”