Infant Hearing Loss: Are Mothers Aware?

Abstract

If hearing impairment goes unnoticed, negative effects on the infant’s communication, academic, learning, socio-emotional, and language skills occur. Mothers have an essential and significant role in screening and early intervention. Hence, the level of their knowledge and attitude needs to be addressed. Objective: To determine the maternal awareness towards infant hearing loss. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Isra University, Islamabad from February to July 2020. The study recruited a sample of n=377 pregnant women aged 18-45 years, utilizing convenience sampling. A basic demographic sheet and a Maternal Awareness about Hearing Loss questionnaire were used for data collection. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS Version 26.0.  ANOVA and independent sample t-test statistics were utilized to determine any significant difference in knowledge and attitude scores for demographic variables and p< 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Overall mothers responded positively to knowledge and attitude items with good scores for knowledge (25.71 ± 6.27) and attitude (8.01 ± 1.88). There was a significant (p<0.05) difference in knowledge and attitude scores for educational level, financial status, and employment status and age revealed significant difference for level of knowledge. Conclusions: This study concluded that maternal awareness about hearing loss is variably distributed for different risk factors and has a positive attitude about hearing loss and a highly positive attitude and willingness to accept the management options in case hearing loss is detected.