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The hearing profile among learners in schools in the Western Cape, South Africa
C North-Matthiassen1, S A Singh
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Cape Town, South Africa. cnorthm@gmail.com
Abstract:
The hearing profile amongst school learners in the Western Cape was investigated. The University of Cape Town's hearing-screening programme at 11 primary schools (n=1101) was audited and revealed a 13.8% referral rate amongst school-aged children. The possible effects of environmental noise on hearing-screening performance at 500Hz was investigated. When the hearing-screening results at 500Hz were excluded from the audit, the referral rate was reduced from 13.8% to 7.9%. The referral rate for hearing-screening failures amongst the learners in the sample was towards the high end of the range for developing countries (3.3-13.9%). More learners had unilateral than bilateral hearing failures while laterality, gender and geographical differences were minimal. This high referral rate suggests a strong need for hearing-screening of the school-aged population.
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