Prevalence of hearing impairment and associated factors among adults residing in rural area of Chandigarh, India

Hearing is key to everyday functioning, communication and relationships in World. Hearing loss is a public health concern since it impairs communication, academic progress, and quality of life. Detection of hearing impairment in early stage is extremely important for its effective rehabilitation. Thus the study was undertaken to assess the prevalence of hearing impairment using “hearWHO Pro” mobile application.

A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to enroll 496 participants from 500 families residing in village Dhanas Chandigarh. Adults aged 18 years and above were included. One adult member from each family was selected using kish method and screened for hearing impairment by using “hearWHO pro” mobile application. However audiometry was done for 10% of the participants who screened positive through the app. Interview schedule was used to collect sociodemograhic and clinical profile of participants. Written informed consent was taken from all the participants.

Mean age of participants was 35.26±12.08 years and 58.09 % were females. Prevalence of hearing impairment as per the hear WHO pro app was 8.9%. Symptoms among screened positives were frequently asking others to repeat (36.4%), trouble in understanding conversation in noisy places (34.1%), ringing sensation in ears (31.8%), people you talk seems to mumble (25%), dizziness or fear of losing your balance (25.0), increase TV volume frequently (22.7%), ear pain (20.5%), ear discharge (13.6%). All the participants (n=5) had mild to high frequency sensory neural hearing loss in both ears on audiometry test.

The prevalence of hearing impairment in the studied population is high. Study highlights the need of regular screening programs to identify the cases at the earliest. Training of frontline workers in the community e.g. ANM, ASHA, Anganwadi workers can also be done in using the app and to create awareness in the community.