Mean Hearing Thresholds Among School Children in Taiwan

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to obtain the mean hearing thresholds among school-age children residing in the Datong and Jhongshan Districts of Taipei City, Taiwan. Hearing thresholds were obtained from a stratified sample of 1411 students in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10 based on their participation in the annual health examination of school-age children carried out by the Taipei City Government. After otoscopic examination, audiometric testing was undertaken at 0.5 to 4 kHz along with tympanometric screening. The means and SDs obtained from these examinations are reported by grade, gender, ear, and frequency. The mean hearing thresholds ranged between 6.8 and 16.7 dB HL, with the highest (poorest) hearing threshold being obtained at a test frequency of 0.5 kHz. At all the tested frequencies, the hearing thresholds of boys were found to be higher than those of girls. Logistic regressions demonstrating that those students with the highest odds ratios of hearing loss were to be found in the sample of children in grade 1. The odds ratios of hearing loss were also found to be higher among boys than girls and for the left ear rather than the right. These results indicate that the mean thresholds among the study sample were well above (meaning poorer) the pure-tone average of 15 dB HL, as recommended in a previous study. Therefore, the results of this study suggest the need to further determine the etiology of hearing loss among children in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10 in the Datong and Jhongshan Districts of Taipei City and perhaps Taiwan.