Views of Syrian Mothers in Ankara on Infant Hearing Loss: Cross-sectional Survey

Abstract

Background Mothers’ awareness of hearing loss, its risk factors, and available detection and intervention choices have been well known to play an essential role in the early detection and intervention of hearing loss. Objective To investigate the knowledge and attitude of Syrian mothers toward infant hearing loss, early identification, and intervention. Methods The “Maternal Views on Infant Hearing Loss” questionnaire was adapted and translated into Arabic and then administered to 100 Syrian mothers living in different neighborhoods in Ankara within the age range of 18–68 years old. The internal consistency for the main domains of the questionnaire was tested by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient were used to evaluate the responses. Results The highest level of knowledge about the risk factors was about noise exposure (76%), while the lowest level of knowledge was about jaundice (25%). While 98% of the mothers had a positive attitude toward early detection, 97% of them did not mind the early intervention. Conclusions The present findings showed the need to improve mothers’ awareness about infant hearing loss risk factors, available detection, and intervention. Such results may help in performing programs that aim to increase awareness about hearing loss. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10995-022-03488-1.

Analysis of a hearing loss identification and intervention program in the first years of life in primary care

“…However, this is an age group in which parents and guardians have high chances of identifying the main symptoms of disabling hearing loss. Identification by the parents themselves can occur accurately, especially if the child's hearing loss affects the frequencies of speech sounds and if it is, minimally, a moderate or bilateral hearing loss [32][33][34][35][36] . Similarly, for the first year of life, involvement, family observation and continuous monitoring are essential, given that, even with the use of a validated instrument, a sensitivity of 67% is estimated, with a false-negative rate of 33%, for not identifying unilateral hearing loss 18 .…”

Análise de um programa de identificação e intervenção da perda auditiva nos primeiros anos de vida na atenção primária

“…No entanto, trata-se de uma faixa etária em que os pais e responsáveis possuem grandes chances de identificação dos principais sintomas das perdas auditivas incapacitantes. A identificação pelos próprios pais pode ocorrer de forma precisa, especialmente se a perda auditiva da criança afetar as frequências dos sons de fala e se for, minimamente, uma perda auditiva moderada ou bilateral [32][33][34][35][36] . De forma similar, para o primeiro ano de vida, o envolvimento, a observação familiar e o acompanhamento contínuo são essenciais, tendo em vista que, mesmo com a utilização de instrumento validado, é estimada uma sensibilidade de 67%, com taxa de falso-negativo de 33%, por não identificar as perdas auditivas unilaterais 18 .…”