AUDIOMETRIC SCREENING OF 8-14 YEAR OLD CHILDREN - RESULTS OF THE GERMAN ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY FOR CHILDREN (GERES IV)

Babisch W, Schulz C, Seiwert M, Becker K, Conrad A, Zigelski C, Kolossa-Gehring M.

Federal Environment Agency, Dessau/Berlin, Germany

The German Environment Agency (UBA) carried out its fourth environmental survey from 2003 to 2006, which was especially for children (GerES IV). 959 children, 8-14 years of age, who were randomly selected from all over Germany underwent an audiometric screening test (representative sample). The survey aimed to provide reference values for a variety of environmental and individual (bio-monitoring) factors, which may be relevant to children's health and well-being. Furthermore, the emphasis was on associations between environmental and habitual factors on potential health outcomes – in this case, associations between leisure activities and hearing.

All children were asked about leisure activities, housing conditions and environmental factors. The hearing tests were performed during home visits, using an automatic audiometer with improved sound insulation earphones (AURITEC type AT409, Sennheiser Type HDA 200 earphones). The background noise during the hearing tests was controlled with a sound level meter. Pure tone air conduction screening thresholds of the children's hearing (5 dB increments) were assessed in the conventional frequency range from 1 to 6 kHz. No further audiometric tests were carried out. The children constitute an unscreened population sample (ISO 1999), in this respect.

12.8 / 2.4 % of the children had a hearing loss of more than 20 / 30 dB HL at one of the test frequencies on one ear. When only the high frequency range was considered (3-6 kHz), the prevalences were 10.6 / 2.1 %. Boys (13.1 / 3.1 %) were more often affected than girls (8.0 / 1.0 %). Different criteria were used to define potentially noise induced sensorineural hearing impairment. No associations were found with the use of personal audio equipment. The average daily exposure was 0.5 hours per day. The lifetime exposure may well have been too short for the detection of a respective association due to the young age of the children.

E-mail: wolfgang.babisch@uba.de