Abstract
Objective: To study the effect of age on auditory threshold shift among children in two schools for the deaf.
Design: Prospective.
Setting: Two schools for the hearing impaired children, one in a non-metropolitan and another in a metropolitan area. Method: Three hundred and eight-five children with hearing level of 75 dB were audologicaly tested within three years. The study was performed from January 2005 to June 2007.
Result: Pure tone audiogram showed 6-8 dB threshold shift in the metropolitan group of 234 children and 4 dB in the non-metropolitan group of 151 children. In metropolitan school one hundred and forty-seven (62.8%) were found to be hearing aid users and 42 (28%) were in non-metropolitan school.
Conclusion: Threshold shift of 6-8 dB in the metropolitan group of 234 children and 4 dB threshold shift in the non-metropolitan group of 151 children was found.