Document Type : Original Articles
Authors
1 Hearing Disorder Research Center, Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
2 Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Background: Late identification and intervention of hearing loss in children negatively impact their hearing, language, and cognitive skills. Parents of hearing-impaired children (HIC) often experience high stress levels and depression. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of early intervention on the general health of parents of HIC.
Method: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted with parents of moderate to severe HIC who received either early or late intervention. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), which measures four subscales of physical symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunction, and depression, was administered to both groups of parents. The independent t-test, analysis of variance, and the Tukey test were employed to compare general health and its subscales between the two groups.
Results: A significant difference (Pv = 0.042) was found between the overall general health scores of parents (both fathers and mothers) of HIC with early interventions and parents of HIC with late interventions, particularly on the social dysfunction subscale (Pv = 0.003). Mothers of children with late interventions exhibited a greater disturbance on the GHQ's social dysfunction subscale than other parents (Pv < 0.05).
Conclusion: Early intervention improves the general health of HIC's parents, especially in the social dysfunction subscale. However, late intervention appears to have a more pronounced impact on the general health and social function of HIC mothers than other parents.
Keywords
- Vos T, Allen C, Arora M, Barber RM, Bhutta ZA, Brown A, et al. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 310 diseases and injuries, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. The Lancet. 2016;388(10053):1545-602.
- Stevens G, Flaxman S, Brunskill E, Mascarenhas M, Mathers CD, Finucane M. Global and regional hearing impairment prevalence: an analysis of 42 studies in 29 countries. The European Journal of Public Health. 2011;23(1):146-52.
- Lotfi Y, Ja'fari Z. The prevalence of hearing disorders among the 3-6 years old children of kindergartens in welfare organization of Tehran province. Archives of Rehabilitation. 2001;2(1):7-13.
- Haghshenas M, Zadeh P, Javadian Y, Fard H, Delavari K, Panjaki H, et al. Auditory screening in infants for early detection of permanent hearing loss in northern Iran. Annals of medical and health sciences research. 2014;4(3):340-4.
- Firoozbakht M, Mahmoudian S, Alaeddini F, Esmaeilzadeh M, Rafiei M, Firouzbakht A, et al. Community-based newborn hearing screening programme for early detection of permanent hearing loss in Iran: an eight-year cross-sectional study from 2005 to 2012. Journal of medical screening. 2014;21(1):10-7.
- Meinzen-Derr J, Wiley S, Choo DI. Impact of early intervention on expressive and receptive language development among young children with permanent hearing loss. American annals of the deaf. 2011;155(5):580-91.
- Çelik P, Keseroğlu K, Er S, Sucaklı İA, Saylam G, Yakut Hİ. Early-auditory intervention in children with hearing loss and neurodevelopmental outcomes: cognitive, motor and language development. The Turkish Journal of Pediatrics. 2021;63(3):450-60.
- Pelarak F, Radmehr M, Sanjari H, Abdalvand A, Forouzesh F. The Children with Hearing Disabilities: Mothers’ General Health Status and Children’s Quality of Life. Jundishapur Journal of Chronic Disease Care. 2021;10(4).
- Looi V, Lee ZZ, Loo JH. Quality of life outcomes for children with hearing impairment in Singapore. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology. 2016;80:88-100.
- Hintermair M. Parental resources, parental stress, and socioemotional development of deaf and hard of hearing children. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ. 2006;11(4):493-513.
- Burger T, Spahn C, Richter B, Eissele S, Löhle E, Bengel J. Parental distress: The initial phase of hearing aid and cochlear implant fitting. American annals of the deaf. 2005;150(1):5-10.
- Sarant J, Garrard P. Parenting stress in parents of children with cochlear implants: Relationships among parent stress, child language, and unilateral versus bilateral implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education. 2013;19(1):85-106.
- Quittner AL, Steck JT, Rouiller RL. Cochlear implants in children: a study of parental stress and adjustment. The American journal of otology. 1991;12:95-104.
- Movallali G, Abdollahzadeh Rafi M, Nemati S. Comparison of general health status in mothers of hearing and hearing-impaired children. Audiol. 2013;22(2):33-9.
- Gohari N, Sajadi E, Azvantash Z, Khavarghazalani B. A comparative study on the general health of the mothers of children with cochlear implant, hearing aid, and normal hearing. Auditory and Vestibular Research. 2020.
- Ma S. Mental Health Status and Influencing Factors Among Family Caregivers of Hearing-impaired Children. personnel. 2021;11:10.
- Stabile M, Allin S. The economic costs of childhood disability. The future of children. 2012:65-96.
- Maridal HK, Bjørgaas HM, Hagen K, Jonsbu E, Mahat P, Malakar S, et al. Psychological distress among caregivers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders in Nepal. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2021;18(5):2460.
- Laskar AR, Gupta VK, Kumar D, Sharma N, Singh MM. Psychosocial effect and economic burden on parents of children with locomotor disability. The Indian Journal of Pediatrics. 2010;77(5):529-33.
- Organization WH. World report on disability 2011: World Health Organization; 2011.
- Shojaei E, Jafari Z, Gholami M. Effect of early intervention on language development in hearing-impaired children. Iranian journal of otorhinolaryngology. 2016;28(84):13.
- Ching TY, Leigh G. Considering the impact of universal newborn hearing screening and early intervention on language outcomes for children with congenital hearing loss. Hearing, balance and communication. 2020;18(4):215-24.
- Barker DH, Quittner AL, Fink NE, Eisenberg LS, Tobey EA, Niparko JK, et al. Predicting behavior problems in deaf and hearing children: The influences of language, attention, and parent–child communication. Development and psychopathology. 2009;21(2):373-92.
- Crnic K, Low C. Everyday stresses and parenting. 2002.
- Quittner AL, Barker DH, Cruz I, Snell C, Grimley ME, Botteri M, et al. Parenting stress among parents of deaf and hearing children: Associations with language delays and behavior problems. Parenting: Science and Practice. 2010;10(2):136-55.
- Lee HJ, Lee JM, Na G, Moon YM, Lee C, Jung J. Which patients with a unilateral hearing aid for symmetric sensorineural hearing loss have auditory deprivation? Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology. 2020;13(1):23.
- Ching TY. Is early intervention effective in improving spoken language outcomes of children with congenital hearing loss? American journal of audiology. 2015;24(3):345-8.
- Yoshinaga‐Itano C. Early intervention after universal neonatal hearing screening: impact on outcomes. Mental retardation and developmental disabilities research reviews. 2003;9(4):252-66.
- Janjua F, Woll B, Kyle J. Effects of parental style of interaction on language development in very young severe and profound deaf children. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology. 2002;64(3):193-205.
- Brand HJ, Coetzer MA. Parental response to their child's hearing impairment. Psychological Reports. 1994;75(3):1363-8.
- Aras I, Stevanović R, Vlahović S, Stevanović S, Kolarić B, Kondić L. Health related quality of life in parents of children with speech and hearing impairment. International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology. 2014;78(2):323-9.
- Olsson MB, Hwang C. Depression in mothers and fathers of children with intellectual disability. Journal of intellectual disability research. 2001;45(6):535-43.
- Veisson M. Depression symptoms and emotional states in parents of disabled and non-disabled children. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal. 1999;27(1):87-97.
- Movallali G, Nemati S. Difficulties in parenting hearing-impaired children. Bimonthly Audiology-Tehran University of Medical Sciences. 2009;18(1):1-11.
- Gohari N, Firuzbakht M, Esmailzade M, Mashhadihossein F, Rashedi V. Evaluation of universal newborn hearing screening with TEOAE-TEOAE and TEOAE-AABR. Journal of Research in Rehabilitation Sciences. 2014;10(1):46-55.
)