The burden of Hearing Loss in Kaduna, Nigeria: A 4-Year Study at the National Ear Care Centre | Semantic Scholar (2025)

Ototoxicity, moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss were found commonest in this study and the government and non-governmental agencies were advised to help put facilities in place for screening, early diagnosis and proper management.

Hearing loss constitutes about 10.33% of all pediatric ear, nose, and throat diseases within the period under review, andFebrile illnesses and their treatment are the most common risk factors.

The young adults are the most affected; age 30-39 years with bilateral affectation and profound degree of hearing loss and Infective conditions such as CSOM are still very predominant in the aetiology of hearing Loss in the authors' environment.

Infections are perceived to be the most common cause of hearing loss in the investigated population, however, affected patients did not promptly seek medical care and delayed care seeking was due to lack of awareness in most cases.

It is clear that, ear diseases are very common amongst the subjects of the district, with the most common cause of hearing impairment being chronic otitis media in the study.

The higher prevalence of the flat audiogram configuration compared to other parts of the world may be suggestive of an etiology specific to this region, such as the endemic Lassa Fever and LassA virus infection in addition to cytomegalovirus or other viral infections associated with hearing loss.

The prevalence and possible causes of hearing impairment in a semi-urban community using the World Health Organization Ear and Hearing disorders survey protocol was conducted in 2013 and calls for concerted efforts by relevant authorities to reduce the burden.

In the majority of the prolonged headphone/earphone users, the hearing impairment was bilateral, mild, sensorineural, and mostly affects higher frequencies, similar to other hearing impairment studies.

The prevalence of chronic suppurative otitis media in children appears to be on the increase in Nigeria probably due to factors associated with poverty and deteriorating healthcare facilities and this study aimed to determine the prevalence as seen in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

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The authors' data suggest that impacted cerumen, hearing loss, and infections (notably CSOM), are the common ear diseases among elderly Nigerians.

It was shown that the site and sized of perforation affects the degree of hearing loss, and hearing loss was more marked in patients with long duration of disease.

Prevalence of hearing problems is far more common than previously estimated and is associated with SES and noise exposure history.

A high prevalence of hearing loss was identified among a group of Third World children and much of this impairment may result from chronic untreated or unrecognized ear infections, which is necessary for planning preventive and curative programs.

Severity of hearing loss was significantly associated with having a hearing handicap and with self-reported communication difficulties, and decreased function in both the Mental component Summary score and the Physical Component Summary score of the SF-36 as well as with six of the eight individual domain scores.

It is suggested that complicated tympano-plastic procedures are in general inappropriate in the chronic ear population of this study.

In Nigeria, there is a need for public enlightenment and health education about the possible drawbacks of this practice of ototopical self-medication.

An inverse relationship between the incidence of measles induced sensorineural hearing loss and the increased immunisation coverage when Universal Child Immunisation (UCI) was attained in 1990 is demonstrated.

There is an urgent need to develop reliable and simple screening procedures for infants and young children; where possible, all children should be screened for severe or significant hearing impairment before the age of 2 years.

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