Evaluation of a bilingual questionnaire-based assessment on hearing in children with speech delay.

INTRODUCTION

To correlate the score obtained using a bilingual (Malay and English) 14 points questionnaire in the detection of hearing loss at the University of Malaya, Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia over a 9 month period.

METHODS

This is a prospective instrument correlation study done on 93 children aged 1-4 years of age with speech and language delay for at least 3 months. Hearing status was confirmed using otoacoustic emissions, pure tone audiometry and brainstem evoked response (BSER). Hearing status was then compared to the 14-point questionnaire final scores and is statistically correlated.

RESULTS

There were 26 patients, 15 males (58%) and 11(42%) females who were diagnosed to have hearing loss. The average age of presentation was 2.49 and conductive hearing loss accounted for about 74% of cases of hearing loss. The mean questionnaire score obtained through our patients was 3.83±1.987. Discriminant analysis suggests that a questionnaire score of above 4 was indicative that the child was suffering from hearing loss.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that the low-cost bilingual (Malay and English) questionnaire can be used to detect hearing loss in the Malaysian population and could potentially be useful in rural health centres to help detect hearing loss and to determine the urgency of referral to a tertiary health centre.