A REPORT ON THE SURVEY OF HEARING QUALITY IN STUDENTS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS OF URMIA

The goal of this study was determining the frequency distribution of hearing loss among the students of public elementary schools of Urmia .This Cross – sectional descriptive study was done in Public elementary schools of Urmia in academic year 1378 – 79 Hijri Solar. Three thousand ears of 1500 students (750 girls and 750 boys, chosen randomly at two stages) from the primary school students. From the whole students undergone screening, 93.4% passed and 6.6% failed. An overall 5.8% hearing loss was found in this population including 4.27% bilateral and 1.53% one sided hearing loss. 3.27% of population suffered from conductive, 2.4% of sensory – neural and 0.14% of mixed hearing loss. Abnormal conditions of external ear canal was found in 5.1% of subjects mostly cerumen (3.1%). Abnormal tympanic membrane were seen more frequently among the girls. Abnormal conditions of tympanic membrane (14.4%) was observed more frequently in the age group of 7 year and this difference was staistically meaningful (P