Abstract
This study was performed to establish a method for the early detection of hard—of—hearing children, using high—risk criteria. It was performed on children born in Gothenburg in 1970. 362 children were examined thoroughly because of the presence of a high risk history or suspicion of deafness. 10 hard—of—hearing children were found by the end of May 1973 (0.16%). One of the two maternity hospitals used a fixed routine with a written list of high risk criteria, as the basis for audiological examination. All hard—of—hearing children born at that clinic were diagnosed at the age of 9 months. The other clinic made an evaluation in each case, and 3 of the hard—of—hearing children were not diagnosed until the age of 22–33 months of age. All of these 3 children had a severe hearing loss. Nine of the 10 children with a hearing loss had one or more of the high risk criteria listed in Table II. This investigation indicates that by using high risk criteria it is possible to make an early diagnosis of deafness, but one must make some sort of screening investigation later on.