Children with hearing aids in the 1980s: etiologies and severity of impairment

The value of 20 years of attempts to control the causes of hearing impairment in children should now be observable. If they have been successful there can be expected to be a change in the prevalence of some etiologies, a variation in the proportions of all remaining etiologies, and a reduction in the prevalence of severe and profound impairments. An investigation of these expectations has been conducted by surveying children fitted with hearing aids in Australia. The results of this investigation highlight development of a number of new trends, including virtual elimination of maternal rubella and Rh incompatibility as causes of impairment, together with a new emphasis on the fitting of hearing aids for mild and conductive impairments.