School hearing screening: first steps in Armenia

Hearing has a great importance for normal speech development and social integration of a child. Hearing disorders in children can be acquired during early childhood and may stay unnoticed by parents and teachers. Neonatal screening system was introduced in Armenia in December 2007. In the policlinics of the Republic of Armenia, all children get ENT consultation at the age of six, however no hearing screening is conducted.
The goal of this research was to detect hearing loss among the preschool and school age children using a screening program. A total of 3560 children were included in this study. The pure tone audiometry with signal of 25 dB of air conduction at frequency rates of 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 Hz has been used for screening.
The 5.2% of examined children (185 children) did not pass the screening, and were sent to specialized clinics for further work up. The results of further work up in those 185 showed that 109 of them (3.06% of total number) had been diagnosed with different otic diseases and disorders. In this group, 7 children were diagnosed with uni- or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss; at the same time neither the parents nor the children were aware of the disease.
The large-scale screening held for the first time among preschool and school age children in Armenia. It results showed, that this group is key in terms of early identification of hearing loss and prevention of subsequent complications to ensure and improve the health of the younger generation.