Development of a public audiology service in Southern Malawi: profile of patients across two years

Abstract

Objective

To describe the profile of patients attending the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) audiology clinic in Malawi, over a two-year period (2016–2017).

Design

A retrospective patient record review.

Study sample

There were 2299 patients assessed at the QECH audiology department between January 2016 and December 2017. Adult patients’ ages ranged from 18 to 94 years (M = 45.8, SD = 19.22). The mean age of children included in this study was 7.7 years (SD= 5.21). Overall, 45.4% of patients were female.

Results

Of the 61.6% of adults and 41.7% of children found to have some degree of hearing loss, 28.3% and 15.4% were fitted with hearing aids, respectively. The number of patients seen in 2017 (n = 1385) was 34% higher than that of 2016 (n = 914).

Conclusion

This study found that demand for hearing services is increasing in this public sector Malawian audiology department but uptake of hearing aids for those in need is low. Future evaluation of service provision and treatment outcomes is needed. Results from this study can be used to inform the development of future audiology clinics in low resource settings.

Keywords:

• Audiology
• hearing loss
• deafness
• Malawi
• ear and hearing care
• hearing aids

Disclosure statement

The first author, Bhavisha Parmar, is the Technical Specialist for the charity Deaf Kidz International (formally known as Sound Seekers).