Questionnaire for monitoring auditory and language development in the first year
Insights
A questionnaire for community health agents can help identify infant hearing and language development issues. This tool shows high specificity but moderate sensitivity for detecting hearing loss in children under one year old.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric audiology
- Public health surveillance
- Child development monitoring
Background:
- Early identification of hearing and language impairments in infants is crucial for timely intervention.
- Community health agents play a vital role in primary healthcare and child monitoring.
- Validated tools are needed to support community health agents in assessing infant hearing and language development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate a questionnaire for assessing infant hearing and language development.
- To evaluate the feasibility and relevance of the questionnaire for community health agents within the Family Health Strategy program.
Main Methods:
- A questionnaire on hearing and language development was administered to families of 304 infants (0-1 year) by 76 trained community health agents.
- A double-blind study design ensured that all children assessed by the questionnaire also underwent audiological evaluations by specialists.
- Validity was assessed using false positive and false negative rates, with a specific question on hearing ability posed to all age groups.
Main Results:
- Four children (1.32%) were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss, and 69 (22.7%) with conductive hearing loss.
- The questionnaire demonstrated high specificity (96%) and moderate sensitivity (67%).
- A 33% false-negative rate was observed for unilateral hearing loss, and a 4% false-positive rate.
Conclusions:
- The validated questionnaire is a feasible and relevant tool for community health agents in the Family Health Strategy program.
- The instrument exhibits high specificity and moderate sensitivity in identifying potential hearing and language development issues.
- This validated questionnaire can complement Newborn Hearing Screening Programs to detect late-onset or acquired hearing loss in infants.
Purpose:
To validate a monitoring questionnaire about hearing and language development applied by community health agents in the first year of life.
Methods:
Seventy six community health agents, previously trained on infant hearing health, administered a questionnaire to the families of 304 children with ages from 0 to 1 year. The questionnaire contains questions regarding hearing and language development and, for all age groups, the question "Does your child hear well?" was presented. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by analyzing false positive and false negative rates of the identified children. A double-blind study was conducted so that all children assessed by the questionnaire were submitted to hearing evaluation performed by audiologists.
Results:
Four children (1.32%) were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss (two unilateral), and 69 (22.7%) with conductive hearing loss. The monitoring questionnaire showed specificity of 96% and sensitivity of 67%, with a false-negative rate of 33% for not identifying the unilateral hearing loss, and a false-positive rate of 4%.
Conclusion:
The questionnaire used has shown to be feasible and relevant to actions of the community health agents of the Family Health Strategy program, with high specificity and moderate sensitivity. The use of the validated instrument should be considered to complement Newborn Hearing Screening Programs, in order to identify late onset or acquired hearing loss.
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