Evaluation of a hearing screening questionnaire for use with Ecuadorian school-aged children

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of a teacher-administered hearing screening questionnaire to detect hearing loss among first-grade Ecuadorian children in public schools. Design: A cross-sectional design was used to compare screening results from the teacher-administered questionnaire and pure-tone audiometry. Study sample: Children were randomly selected from 117 schools. The study was conducted in two phases to accommodate different school calendars in the country. Data for both screening methods were available for 4616 children. Results: For Phase 1, almost 90% who failed the questionnaire passed audiometry; and, 85% who failed audiometry passed the questionnaire. A revised questionnaire was used for Phase 2 and 70% who failed the questionnaire passed audiometry; and 85% who failed audiometry, passed the questionnaire. Of the 27 children identified in Phase 2 as having hearing loss at the time screening was done, 88.9% failed audiometry, but only 22.2% failed the questionnaire. Conclusions: Because there was little agreement between the questionnaire and the audiometry, it was recommended that the questionnaire not be used to screen Ecuadorian children for hearing loss. The results of this evaluation of the school hearing screening program provided the Ecuadorian government with important information to guide policy decisions.

Key Words::

• Hearing
• screening
• questionnaire

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and extend our appreciation to the individuals who assisted with data collection in Ecuador, including the teachers, school personnel, and the staff at SETEDIS. We also extend our appreciation to the graduate students and staff at Utah State University who assisted with data management, data entry, and analyses. This study was presented at the Hearing Across the Lifespan conference in Cernobbio, Italy on June 6, 2014 and at the Conference of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health in Oxford, UK on July 25, 2014. The International Initiative for Impact Evaluation, Inc. (3ie) Global Development Network (GDN) provided financial support for the research. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of 3ie or its members, or of the GDN. The funder, 3ie, had no involvement in the conduct of the research or preparation of the article.

Declaration of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.