An Audiometric Survey of the Incidence and Causes of Hearing Defects Among Draftees in Finland, 1954–1955

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Abstract
The hearing of 2071 draftees (aged 19) was tested with screening-audiometry within the frequency range 250–4000 cps at 10 db level. Hearing defects were found in 11.40 % of the testees (perceptive defects in 6.08% and conductive in 4.20 %). The cause of hearing loss was established by otological examination. The majority of the conductive hearing defects were caused by adhesive otitis media or chronic otitis media and sequelae. 1.79 % of all testees had monaural or binaural adhesive otitis media and 2.12 % monaural or binaural chronic otitis media. 0.63 % of the testees had lasting binaural hearing loss of at least 30 db in the better ear. In more than half of these cases (8 out of 13) the hearing defect was caused by adhesive otitis media or chronic otitis media. It is concluded that, in order to decrease the incidence of permanent and disabling hearing defect caused by inflammation, it is of the utmost importance to test the hearing of schoolchildren regularly and audiometrically. Emphasis is also laid on the importance of audiometric hearing tests at the beginning of military service, in order to detect perceptive hearing defect liable to deteriorate by acoustic trauma during military service.

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