Prevalence and Etiology of Hearing Loss in Primary and Middle School Students in the Hubei Province of China

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and etiology of hearing loss in primary and middle school students in the Hubei province of China. During a 2-year period, 504348 students were examined by a speech audiometry test, and 813 deaf students were detected. Among the 813 deaf students, 232 cases were diagnosed with congenital deafness and 560 cases had acquired deafness, among which 276 cases had aminoglycoside-antibiotic-induced deafness. The severity of deafness could be further ascertained in 804 other students, with 402 profound, 363 severe, 21 moderate and 18 mild deafness cases. The age at deafness onset of most students was under 3 years. The prevalence of congenital and acquired deafness was 0.046% (232/504348) and 0.111% (560/504348), respectively, much lower than previously reported in other regions of China. Furthermore, the genetic factor was identified as one of the principal causes of deafness by pedigree analysis.