Listening Behavior, Prevalence of Ear Diseases and Hearing Loss in Primary Elementary School Children Who Studied Online (A Prospective Pilot Study)
Keywords:
Hearing loss, Hearing screening, Listening behavior, Personal listening devicesAbstract
Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools changed their teaching modalities to online modes. Increasing the duration of using and listening to personal listening devices (PLDs) was expected. The risk of noise-induced hearing loss should be increased. Objective: 1. To assess hearing health and listening behavior with earphones. 2. To evaluate the prevalence of hearing loss and ear diseases. Method: A prospective pilot study was performed at Chiang Mai Rajabhat University Demonstration School between June and August 2022. The data of primary elementary school children including hearing health and listening behaviors were collected with questionnaires answered by parents. Otoscopies and hearing tests with distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were performed. Results: Data from 228 parents showed that duration of listening to PLD on day with online-studying was significantly longer than on day with no online-studying (p-value < .0001). Of 225 students who had ear examinations, 49.78% were boys and 50.22% were girls. The average age was 7.46±0.87 years. Otoscopic findings revealed occluded cerumen (27.55%) and partially occluded cerumen (13.33%). Other findings had only one student in each finding (2.20% in total; 95% CI: 0.7 - 5.1) and those were ear drum perforation, myringosclerosis, air bubbles behind the ear drum, dull or retracted ear drum, and foreign body in the ear canal. DPOAE results in 208 students with normal and seen ear drums showed normal in both ears at 97.60%, abnormal in either ear at 1.9%, and abnormal in both ears at 0.49%. Conclusion: The students increased their use of PLDs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Otoscopic findings revealed 40.88% of the students had impacted cerumen. DPOAE results showed an abnormality in only 2.4%. Though there was a low prevalence of ear diseases and hearing loss, safe listening programs should be implemented to prevent irreversible damage to the inner ear.
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