Researchers from Saint Louis University evaluated hearing screening results during more than 1,000 routine doctors' visits. Ten percent of the kids screened during these visits failed a hearing screening. Failing a screening means the child didn't react to at least one frequency sound in one of their ears at a 20-decibel level. To put it in perspective, a soft whisper measures about 20 decibels.

Results of the study show 59 percent of the kids who failed the hearing screening were not sent for further evaluation. Donna R. Halloran, M.D., from Saint Louis University, says: "Doctors are doing tests that they're ignoring. Stop doing the test if you are not going to pay attention to it. Or, if you are going to do the test, pay attention to the results."

Dr. Halloran says about 3 percent Americans have hearing impairments. If 10 percent of kids in the study failed the hearing screenings, she says it's obvious some of the tests come back as false-positives. She says if more than half of kids who fail the screenings don't get referred for in-depth evaluation by an audiologist, however, some children with hearing problems won't get the help they need.

In 2003, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its standards of hearing loss to 25 decibels. This study (which looked at kids who failed a test of 20 decibels) was conducted between 1998 and 2003. Dr. Halloran says the change between 25 decibels and 20 decibels is the equivalent of having 20:30 vision instead of 20:20 vision. She acknowledges with the new standard, fewer children would now fail the screening. Her concern is what this new research suggests. She says, "The findings from this study are worrisome because physicians took no further action in more than 50 percent of the children who failed the hearing screening."

Dr. Halloran adds, "Further evaluation or intervention must take place to allow children with possible hearing impairment to benefit from screening practices. Screening that does not result in action for those failing the screening wastes resources and fails to initiate necessary intervention for hearing loss."

Source: http://www.ivanhoe.com/channels/p_channelstory.cfm?storyid=12470