Prevalence of hearing impairment in the Offinso municipality
Loading...
Date
2011
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The current research reports the prevalence of hearing impairment in the Offinso Municipality. A cross-sectional research designed to recruit 600 respondents from three (3) suburbs of the municipality was used in the data collection. The purpose of the study was to determine the occurrence of hearing impairment among the sample population at a given point in time, which will then be used to determine the prevalence of hearing impairment in the Municipality. The procedure adopted included interviews, questionnaires, and physical examination. Of the 600 respondents, 135 (representing 23%) were diagnosed as having significant hearing impairments with prevalence rate of 0.225. There were more hearing impaired men than women. Majority of the respondents had mild hearing loss. The occurrence of conductive hearing impairment was more than other types of hearing impairment. Noise and presbycusis, were the major causes of sensorineural hearing impairment. The frequent causes of hearing impairment were ear wax, otitis media, and noise induce factors as in the case of machine operators such as corn mill operators and chain saw operators. These findings have significant implications on the need of resource development for prevention and rehabilitation.
Description
A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Disability, rehabilitation and Development