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Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
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Published on: January 23, 2017

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Pure tone hearing profiles in children with otitis media with effusion

Ting Cai1, Bradley McPherson1, Caiwei Li2

  • 1a Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Faculty of Education , The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.

Disability and Rehabilitation
|June 23, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Otitis media with effusion (OME) in children causes hearing loss, ranging from normal to moderate. A new algorithm profiles hearing loss, identifying children needing early intervention for auditory disadvantage.

Area of Science:

  • Audiology
  • Pediatric Otolaryngology
  • Hearing Science

Background:

  • Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a prevalent childhood condition.
  • Conductive hearing loss associated with OME significantly impacts children's hearing health.
  • Accurate hearing loss profiling is crucial for timely intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize pure tone audiogram configurations in children with OME.
  • To develop a statistical algorithm for stratifying hearing loss profiles in OME.
  • To aid in identifying children at higher risk of auditory disadvantage.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited school-aged children diagnosed with OME.
  • Acquired bone and air conduction thresholds using standard audiological procedures.
  • Employed hierarchical cluster analysis to define audiometric profile groups.
  • Validated cluster analysis using the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test for sentence perception.

Main Results:

  • Examined 97 children (164 ears), aged 72-153 months.
  • Air conduction thresholds ranged from 8.3-53.3 dB HL (mean 26.8 dB HL).
  • Bone conduction thresholds showed maximal elevation of 25 dB HL at 2000 Hz due to middle ear pathology.
  • Identified four distinct audiometric profiles: normal/near normal (32.9%), mild (22.6%), and moderate hearing loss (29.3%, 15.2%).

Conclusions:

  • OME in children presents with hearing thresholds from normal to moderate levels.
  • Hierarchical clustering offers a novel method for profiling OME-related hearing loss.
  • This algorithm helps identify children at increased risk of auditory disadvantage.
  • Targeted clinical surveillance and interventions can be prioritized for children in higher hearing loss clusters.
Abstract

Keywords:
Cluster analysisconductivemiddle earpure tone audiometryspeech perception

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