Hearing impairment among young Chinese in an urban area

To evaluate hearing levels among young Chinese in an urban area, audiometry was carried out in Jinan city, Shandong Province, China. The subjects were 442 healthy school children and students ranging in age from 6-19 y. All subjects were asked to complete a brief questionnaire on otological symptoms, personal histories and use of noisy playthings. Audiometric threshold testing was performed at the audiometric frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyse the items of personal histories related to hearing impairment. Forty-five subjects (10% of the subjects) were classified as abnormal. Nineteen ears of the abnormal subjects showed 4 kHz-dip and 38 ears showed high-frequency hearing impairment. Lower prevalence of hearing impairment was found when compared with young Chinese in a rural area (20%). The logistic regression analysis showed that head trauma may be the cause of hearing impairment among young Chinese in urban areas. Otological examinations for all children sustaining head trauma are recommended.