Prevalence of Hearing Loss among First Grade School Children in Tirana, Albania – A Repeated Cross-Sectional Survey

Background: Hearing Loss (HL), which affects disproportionally children in low income countries, is increasing worldwide. HL could be associated with a range of speech, language and cognitive problems in children. In Albania the information about this condition is largely outdated. In this context, the aim of this paper was to assess the prevalence of HL among first grade school children in Tirana, the capital city of Albania. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out for three consecutive years during 2008-2011, in 163 schools of Tirana. In total 15,163 first-grade pupils were screened in order to detect those with a high probability of HL, which were later invited to undergo definitive diagnosis procedures. During the first year of study a hearing threshold of ≥ 35 dB for the better ear was used as a cut-off whereas a threshold of ≥30 dB was used for the two remaining study waves. Results: In total, the prevalence of any suspected hearing impairment was 4.4%. The 3-year prevalence of total diagnosed conductive and sensorineural HL was 3.61% and 0.09%, respectively, with no clear trends across the study years. The total prevalence of Otitis Media with Effusion and Chronic Otitis Media was 1.36% and 0.17%, respectively. Conclusions: Hearing loss prevalence among children aged 6-7 years in Albania during 2008-2011 was relatively low. However, in absolute numbers, around 3,000 children would benefit from the early detection of such condition.