New Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) was introduced for audiometers in schools from August 1988 following a notification from the Japanese Ministry of Education. This paper reports the current states of hearing test using audiometer and ear-nose-throat screening examination in schools on the basis of results of a questionnaire survey carried out by the present local branch on September 1990.
This survey covered all 955 public elementary and junior high schools in Niigata prefecture. With the cooperation of the Education Agency of Niigata Prefecture, nurse-teachers at respective schools were asked to respond to the questionnaire. All the schools responded to this questionnaire; made 100% response rate. Following is summarized results. (1) Hearing examination by audiometer was performed at 99.7% of the schools, and 83.7% of them used the new JIS audiometer. (2) 57.3% of schools in urban areas had their own audiometers, whereas the corresponding rate in country side schools was 34.8%; showing a regional difference. (3) Calibration is not always done in every audiometer. (4) Enforcement of hearing tests to all the students in school were 55.7% of the elementary schools and 47.0% of the junior high schools. (5) Ear-nose-throat screening examination was done in 87.0% of the schools every year, and in 87.0% of the elementary schools and 40.4% of the junior high schools for all the students.
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