Assessment of Knowledge and Attitudes of Caregivers Regarding Hearing Impairment among Children at Minia City

Abstract

Background: Hearing impairment is a partial or total inability to hear. A deaf person has little to no hearing. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears, it can affect the ability of children to learn spoken language. Aim: The study aimed to assess of knowledge and attitudes of caregivers regarding hearing impairment among children at Minia City. Study design: A cross sectional descriptive design used to conduct in this study. Subject: Random cluster sample of 268 caregivers. Setting: This study was carried out at Alamel School for the Deaf and Hearing impairment at Minia city. Tools: Two tools was utilized in this study, first tool was an interviewing structured questionnaires sheet was contained two parts: Part 1: Socio-demographic characteristics about caregivers and such as age, sex and residence. Part II: Assess caregivers" knowledge, about hearing impairment that includes definition, causes, symptoms, consequences and management of hearing impairment and second tool was attitude scale. Results: The results show that 86.5% of children suffer from hearing problem less than one year. Regarding knowledge about symptoms & signs, 58% of caregivers didn't know about screen test for early detection hearing loss. There is highly statistically significant difference as regard the level of caregiver"s knowledge in relation to residence. There is positive attitude of caregiver regarding hearing impaired child can be manageable if helped and supported. Conclusion: More than half of caregiver didn't have enough knowledge about hearing impairment. There is highly statistically significant difference as regard the level of knowledge of caregiver"s relation to residence, also there is positive attitude of caregiver regarding hearing impaired children. Recommendations: The study recommended providing health education for caregivers about hearing impairment among children at Minia city and investigating the effect of caregivers" knowledge about hearing impairment among children