FACT:
About 1-2 in every 1,000 U.S. children has a moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears. For many of these children, the cause of the loss is unknown.

The age of a child when a hearing loss is diagnosed is crucial to the development of the child's speech, language, cognitive, and psychosocial abilities. Treatment is most successful if the hearing loss is identified early-through newborn screening done during the first few months of life. Newborn hearing screening costs about $30 per child and takes about 9 minutes to do. Costs are much higher if a hearing loss is not diagnosed until later in life. In the 1995-1996 school year, the total U.S. costs for special education programs for children who were deaf or hard of hearing exceeded $375 million.

We also know that one in every four children with a serious congenital hearing loss does not have his or her hearing loss diagnosed until age 3 years or older. One in every four children with a hearing loss was born weighing less than 2500 grams (about 5½ pounds), and about one in every three has one or more other developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, or vision impairment.

Surveillance activities

The Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program

All infants should be screened for hearing loss by 1 month of age (preferably before hospital discharge). Infants that screen positive should have an audiologic evaluation by 3 months. Infants identified with a hearing loss should be enrolled in an intervention program by 6 months of age. Early detection of hearing loss followed by appropriate intervention services can prevent communication disabilities.

EHDI programs identify 2 to 3 infants per 1000 with a bilateral hearing loss. When infants with mild and unilateral losses are included, 5 to 6 infants per 1000 are identified.

Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program (MADDSP)

In 1991, CDC established the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program (MADDSP), as an ongoing system for monitoring the occurrence of select developmental disabilities, including hearing loss.

The average annual prevalence rate for hearing loss in 3- to 10-year old children in MADDSP is 1.1 per 1000 children (1991-1994).

Research activities

Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study

The Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study (MADDS) was the first US, population-based epidemiologic study of the prevalence of mental retardation, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, vision impairment, and epilepsy among school-aged children.

Follow-Up Study of Children with Developmental Disabilities

The Follow-Up Study involves tracing and interviewing a group of young adults (including persons who are deaf or hard of hearing) who, as 10-year-old children, were studied in the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Study. The purpose of the present effort is to assess the mortality experience and causes of death within the case group from age 10 to age 20 and to characterize the status of the survivors with respect to current health status, living arrangements, socialization, employment, quality of life, service utilization, and independence.

The Children's Longitudinal Development Study (CHILD)

The Children's Longitudinal Development Study (CHILD Study) is an ongoing case-control study in which detailed information will be obtained on pre- and perinatal medical conditions and suspected risk factors for select disabilities (including hearing loss) among children identified through the Metropolitan Atlanta Developmental Disabilities Surveillance Program (MADDSP).

Secondary conditions

Depending on the severity of loss, many people who are deaf or hard of hearing may require special medical care, educational and social services, and lifelong assistance from their family and community.

State Capacity Projects

CDC funds State Capacity Projects that are attempting to determine the magnitude of secondary conditions that may occur in broader domains (many of which affect individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing) in an effort to determine human and economic costs within 14 states. These domains include mobility, communication, learning, and personal care/home management.

Publications

National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) staff have written scientific papers on hearing loss. These papers look at such topics as how common hearing loss is and what causes hearing loss in children. You can see a list of these papers (starting in 1990) by using the keyword search on the NCBDDD publications Web page. Choose "hearing loss" in the keyword box on the search page. You can choose whether you want the list to be sorted by author or by date. You can also choose to have the list appear with or without graphics. Click on the Submit button. You will see a list of papers that are about hearing loss. The list will include the complete reference for each paper and a link to an abstract of the paper or to the full text, when available.

© 2003