TABLE 2.
Characteristics of the Sample
| HA at 5 ya: Screened N = 174 | HA at 5 y: Non-screened N = 47 | Difference Pb | CI at 5 y: aScreened N = 84 | CI at 5 y: Nonscreened N = 20 | Difference P | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child | Age at HA fitting in months, mean (SD) | 9.1 (8.9) | 19.1 (10.7) | <.001 | 4.0 (4.2) | 12.9 (6.3) | <.001 |
| Age at HA fitting in months, median (IQR)c | 5.1 (2.6–12.2) | 21.3 (9.2–28.6) | — | 2.5 (1.8 – 4.1) | 12.8 (7.4 –18.2) | — | |
| Fitted with HAs before 6 mo of age, n (%)d | 97 (55.7%) | 9 (19.1%) | <.001 | 70 (83.3%) | 3 (15.0%) | <.001 | |
| Age at activation of first CI in months, median (IQR) | — | — | — | 13.04 (9.7 –19.2) | 20.9 (16.3 –26.1) | — | |
| Fitted with CI before 12 mo of age, n (%) | — | — | — | 37 (44.0%) | 2 (10.0%) | .01 | |
| Male sex, n (%) | 97 (55.7%) | 30 (63.8%) | .41 | 41 (46.5%) | 5 (25.0%) | .09 | |
| Birth weight (g), mean (SD) | 2967.7 (1022.2) | 3144.2 (843.4) | .67 | 3184.8 (883.5) | 2923.4 (941.1) | .18 | |
| Degree of hearing loss depicted by BE4FA hearing thresholds in dB HL, mean (SD) | 49.1 (14.8) | 47.0 (15.9) | .42 | 101.9 (14.5) | 97.0 (16.9) | .29 | |
| Mild (BE4FA ≤ 40 dB HL), n (%) | 47 (27.0%) | 13 (27.7%) | — | — | — | — | |
| Moderate (BE4FA: 41–60 dBHL), n (%) | 88 (50.6%) | 26 (55.3%) | — | — | — | — | |
| Severe (BE4FA: 61–80 dB HL), n (%) | 36 (20.7%) | 7 (14.9%) | — | 7 (8.6%) | 3 (20%) | — | |
| Profound (BE4FA: >80 dB HL), n (%) | 3 (1.7%) | 1 (2.1%) | — | 74 (91.4%) | 12 (80%) | — | |
| Presence of any additional disabilities, n (%) | 49 (31.3%) | 21 (47.7%) | .06 | 23 (31.9%) | 2 (11.1%) | .14 | |
| Cerebral palsy | 10 (6.3%) | 3 (6.7%) | — | 5 (6.7%) | 2 (11.1%) | — | |
| Autism spectrum disorder | 6 (2.8%) | 1 (2.3%) | — | 4 (5.4%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Vision impairment | 30 (13.9%) | 8 (17.8%) | — | 4 (5.4%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Cranio-facial abnormalities | 9 (5.7%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | 1 (1.3%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Genetic | 17 (10.6%) | 4 (8.9%) | — | 5 (6.8%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Other | 20 (12.6%) | 12 (26.7%) | — | 10 (13.5%) | 0 (0.0%) | — | |
| Nonverbal cognitive ability, mean (SD) | 95.7 (25.4) | 96.3 (24.5) | .81 | 92.5 (26.4) | 92.1 (24.0) | .74 | |
| Oral communication during educational intervention, n (%) | 79 (83.2%) | 19 (76.0%) | .59 | 44 (83.0%) | 5 (62.5%) | .38 | |
| Family | Language other than English household, n (%) | 33 (21.4%) | 6 (14.6%) | .46 | 14 (20.6%) | 3 (20.0%) | .99 |
| SESe, mean (SD) | 1018.8 (74.5) | 1023.9 (74.8) | .68 | 1015.6 (73.5) | 1010.5 (78.0) | .83 | |
| Maternal education: ≤12 y schooling, n (%) | 59 (34.7%) | 19 (43.2%) | .39 | 24 (29.6%) | 8 (42.1%) | .44 | |
| Maternal education: vocational training certificate, n (%) | 43 (25.3%) | 10 (22.7%) | .88 | 18 (22.2%) | 5 (26.3%) | .94 | |
| Maternal education: university degree, n (%) | 68 (40.0%) | 15 (34.1%) | .59 | 39 (48.1%) | 6 (31.6%) | .29 | |
IQR, interquartile range; —, not applicable.
Accessed UNHS. Information about screening status was missing for 25 of the 350 children.
P value for the test of whether the distributions in the screened and nonscreened groups are the same using Mann–Whitney U tests for the continuous variables and tests of proportions for the discrete variables.
Median age at HA fitting of the entire screened group comprising users of HA and CI was 3.9 mo (IQR: 2.3–10.1), and the median age at fitting of the entire nonscreened group was 17.3 mo (IQR: 7.5–25.9).
All percentages are relative to the number of nonmissing values.
SES represented by the Index of Relative Social Advantage and Disadvantage, which has a mean of 1000 and an SD of 100. The study cohort has a range of 300–1250.