Present Status and Problems of Auditory Screening at the 3-year-old Children Health Examination in Mie

Abstract

Since April in 1992, auditory screening at the 3-year-old children health examination has been performed in Mie prefecture. To elucidate the present status and problems of this screening, we mailed questionnaire to 69 cities, towns, and villages in February and March, 1998, and received responses from 63. Since April to December in 1997, 241 (2.18%) of 11047 children were selected for the further examinations and we investigated 162 further examination forms. 126 children visited to clinics and 35 to hospitals for further examination. Pure tone audiometry was performed only in 53 (32.7%) children. Tympanometry was examined in 231 (71.3%) ears. One case of unilateral sensorineural hearing loss was found in this auditory screening.
These results suggest that the effort should be made for achievement of audiometry at the clinic and the hospitals, and children who could not be diagnosed as having normal hearing should be referred to special clinics for hearing impaired children to receive further examination. It is necessary to create comprehensive auditory screening and further examination system in the future.