Ear and hearing outcomes in Aboriginal infants living in an urban Australian area: the Djaalinj Waakinj birth cohort study

Figures & data

Table 1. Sociodemographic, obstetric, environmental characteristics at enrolment or at 2-4-month visit and presence or absence of OM at time of audiological assessment at ∼12 months of age among the 67 infants with and without hearing loss.

		Normal hearing^b (n = 37)		Hearing loss (n = 30)
Characteristic	Outcome measure	n	%	n	%	P value^c
Sex						0.02
	Male	18	48.6	23	76.7
	Female	19	51.5	7	23.3
NBHS^a						0.19
	Passed	34	91.9	25	83.3
	Refer	0	0.0	2	6.7
	Unknown	2	5.4	3	10.0
	Not done	1	2.7	0	0.0
Gestational age (prematurity)						0.45
	Pre-term (< 37 weeks)	5	13.5	2	6.7
	Term (≥ 37 weeks)	32	86.5	28	93.3
Mother gestational diabetes^a						0.42
	Yes	6	16.2	3	10.0
	No	31	83.8	26	86.7
	Unknown	0	0.0	1	3.3
Mother employed^a						0.77
	Yes	14	37.8	12	40.0
	No	23	62.2	17	56.7
	Unknown	0	0.0	1	3.3
Mother smoker^a						0.48
	Yes	11	29.7	11	36.7
	No	26	70.3	18	60.0
	Unknown	0	0.0	1	3.3
Day care attendance^a at 2-4 month						0.47
	Yes	8	21.6	8	26.6
	No	23	62.2	15	50.0
	Unknown	6	16.2	7	23.4
Sibling day care or school attendance						0.13
	Yes	24	64.9	14	46.7
	No	13	35.1	16	53.3
Feeding at 2-4 month^a						0.37
	Breastmilk ± bottle	22	59.5	15	50.0
	Bottle only	12	32.4	13	43.3
	Unknown	3	8.1	2	6.6
Pacifier use at 2-4 months^a						0.17
	Yes	16	43.2.4	18	60.0
	No	18	48.7	10	33.3
	Unknown	3	8.1	2	6.7
Household density (people per room)						0.23
	≤1.0	2	5.4	5	16.7
	>1.0	35	94.6	25	83.3
OM at time of audiological assessment^a^,^d						0.02
	Yes (OM)	14	37.8	21	70.0
	No (no OM)	21	56.8	9	30.0
	Unknown	2	5.4	0	0.0

^a All unknown outcomes excluded from the analysis.

^b Normal hearing defined as average hearing response of 25 dB HL.

^c Pearson’s chi-squared; Fisher’s Exact test used, if expected cell count is less than 5.

^d OM based on type B or C tympanogram obtained.

Table 2. Number and proportion of infants with hearing loss according to different classifications, using corrected and uncorrected VRA responses in the Djaalinj Waakinj cohort study (n = 67).

	Study classification (≥26 dB HL)	Global Burden of Disease Group (>20 dB HL)	WHO Disabling HEARING LOSS (>30 dB HL)
Corrected	30 (44.8)	34 (50.8)	26 (38.8)
Uncorrected	47 (68.9)^a	N/A^b	40 (59.7)

^a Veselinović et al. (2022).

^b Not applicable, due to minimum testing level being 25 dB.

Table 3. Tympanometry results for each assessment time-point among 67 infants who had an audiological assessment at ∼12 months of age.

Assessment time-point	Tympanometry result (% (n))
	Type A	Type B	Type C	Unknown	Total
2–4-month routine screening	53.2 (33)	29.0 (18)	1.6 (1)	16.1 (10)	100 (62)
6–8-month routine screening	46.3 (25)	44.4 (24)	1.9 (1)	7.4 (4)	100 (54)
12–18-month routine screening	34.5 (20)	48.3 (28)	13.8 (8)	3.4 (2)	100 (58)
Audiological assessment	44.8 (30)	44.8 (30)	7.5 (5)	3.0 (2)	100 (67)

Some of the 67 infants who had audiological assessment did not attend for routine screening: 5 at 2-4, 13 at 6-8, 9 at 12-18-month visits.

Figure 1. Average corrected hearing responses (dB HL) of infants in the Djaalinj Waakinj study with OM (n = 35) and without OM (n = 30) at ∼12 month of age.

Figure 2. Average hearing response levels (dB HL) at ∼12 months of age among infants that had no prior OM, OM at either 2-4 or 6-8 months (1 prior event) or OM at both 2-4 and 6-8 months (2 prior events) (n = 38).

Veselinović, T., S. A. Weeks, V. M. Swift, D. Lehmann, and C. G. Brennan-Jones. 2022. “High Prevalence of Hearing Loss in Urban Aboriginal Infants: the Djaalinj Waakinj Cohort Study.” The Medical Journal of Australia 217 (1):46–47. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.51534

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