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Audiology and hearing health professionals in India is made up of Indian healthcare professional that focus on audiological and hearing problems.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2016) |
Audiology and hearing health professionals in India is made up of Indian healthcare professional that focus on audiological and hearing problems.
According to Manchaiah et al. (2010), [1] "Audiological services in India are available in both the public and private sectors. Both sectors offer services such as hearing assessment, selection and fitting of hearing aids, and aural rehabilitation. Some of the centres have successful cochlear implantation programmes, however, the services in some of the specialised audiology areas like vestibular assessment and rehabilitation, assessment and management of auditory processing disorders, and tinnitus rehabilitation are limited. Services provided in the public sector are funded by the Department of Health or the State Governments which usually offer free services mainly at district level hospitals, educational institutes and district health rehabilitation centres. There is also provision for free body level hearing aids and solar driven rechargeable batteries through the scheme ‘Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase (ADIP)’ funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The paediatric population has a provision of subsidised BTE hearing aids under the National Program for Prevention and Control of Deafness (NPPCD) scheme. Private audiology centres in India are generally equipped with all the necessary diagnostic instruments. Their main focus of work is in hearing aid dispensing. However, these clinics or institutes are not easily accessible to people living in rural settings as most of them are based in urban locations."
India is one of the few developing countries with a universal newborn hearing screening program (NHSP). Despite India's exceptionally large population and high annual birth rate (25 babies per 1000), India has a well-developing health care system and well-establish immunization programme. In 2006, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), [2] the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness was launched in India. The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness is currently running in over 60 districts across India and aims to identify babies with bilateral severe-profound hearing loss by 6 months of age and intervene or initiate rehabilitation by 9 months of age. Under this programme, India follows a two-stage protocol for newborn hearing screening. In an institution-based screening, the programme's goal is to screen every baby born in a hospital or admitted soon after birth using otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), specifically transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs). If a baby does not pass, then they are re-tested in a month. If the baby does not pass at the re-screen, then they are referred for auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing at the tertiary-level centers. At community-based screenings, the programme's goal is to screen babies who are not born in hospitals. This screening should be carried out using a questionnaire and behavioral testing and is performed when the baby is immunized at 6 weeks of age or older. A trained health care worker at sub center administers immunization and performs the hearing screening. This protocol is repeated at every immunization. If a baby does not pass the screening, then they are referred for an OAE screening at the district hospital. If they do not pass the OAE screening, then they are sent for an ABR evaluation. Once a baby is identified with hearing loss, they are referred for hearing aid fitting and rehabilitation at the district hospital.
| Country | GNI $Int PPP | Pop. (000s) | Auds | Auds/Mil. Pop. | ENTs | ENTs/Mil. Pop. | Aud Phys | Aud Tech | H/A Tech | SLT | TOD |
| India | 1568 | 1065462 | 1000 | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 700 | N/A |
GNI $Int PPP: Per Capita Gross National Income in international dollars; Pop. (000s): Population (000s); Auds: Total Audiologists; Auds/Mil. Pop: Audiologists per million people; ENTs: Total ENT surgeons; ENTs/Mil. Pop: ENT surgeons per million people; Aud Phys: Audiological Physicians; Aud Techs: Audiological Technicians; SLT: Speech-Language Therapists; TOD: Teachers of the Deaf [3]
Over the past few years, charities and non-governmental organizations have become involved in improving ear and hearing healthcare services in India. Examples of charities and organizations include:
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken language, and in adults it can create difficulties with social interaction and at work. Hearing loss can be temporary or permanent. Hearing loss related to age usually affects both ears and is due to cochlear hair cell loss. In some people, particularly older people, hearing loss can result in loneliness.
Audiology is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing various testing strategies, audiologists aim to determine whether someone has normal sensitivity to sounds. If hearing loss is identified, audiologists determine which portions of hearing are affected, to what degree, and where the lesion causing the hearing loss is found. If an audiologist determines that a hearing loss or vestibular abnormality is present, they will provide recommendations for interventions or rehabilitation.
An otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a sound that is generated from within the inner ear. Having been predicted by Austrian astrophysicist Thomas Gold in 1948, its existence was first demonstrated experimentally by British physicist David Kemp in 1978, and otoacoustic emissions have since been shown to arise through a number of different cellular and mechanical causes within the inner ear. Studies have shown that OAEs disappear after the inner ear has been damaged, so OAEs are often used in the laboratory and the clinic as a measure of inner ear health.
Audiometry is a branch of audiology and the science of measuring hearing acuity for variations in sound intensity and pitch and for tonal purity, involving thresholds and differing frequencies. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subject's hearing levels with the help of an audiometer, but may also measure ability to discriminate between different sound intensities, recognize pitch, or distinguish speech from background noise. Acoustic reflex and otoacoustic emissions may also be measured. Results of audiometric tests are used to diagnose hearing loss or diseases of the ear, and often make use of an audiogram.
Auditory neuropathy (AN) is a hearing disorder in which the outer hair cells of the cochlea are present and functional, but sound information is not transmitted sufficiently by the auditory nerve to the brain. The cause may be several dysfunctions of the inner hair cells of the cochlea or spiral ganglion neuron levels. Hearing loss with AN can range from normal hearing sensitivity to profound hearing loss.
An Audiometrist or Audiometric Officer, is a health-care professional technician who has received special training in the use of Pure tone audiometry equipment. An audiometrist conducts hearing tests, or "audiometric screening", with an Audiometer to establish hearing levels. The results are represented by an audiogram, and are usually interpreted by an audiologist, or a registered Medical Officer, unless the audiometrist is also an audiologist, with the aim of diagnosing hearing loss.
Sound Seekers was a British charity which works to improve the lives of deaf children and children with ear diseases in the developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. It provided specialist equipment, training and support to some of the poorest countries of the world, where people with the 'hidden disability' of deafness may otherwise not receive the help they need. In 2020, Sound Seekers merged with DeafKidz International, with the combined charity using the DeafKidz International name.
Pure-tone audiometry is the main hearing test used to identify hearing threshold levels of an individual, enabling determination of the degree, type and configuration of a hearing loss and thus providing a basis for diagnosis and management. Pure-tone audiometry is a subjective, behavioural measurement of a hearing threshold, as it relies on patient responses to pure tone stimuli. Therefore, pure-tone audiometry is only used on adults and children old enough to cooperate with the test procedure. As with most clinical tests, standardized calibration of the test environment, the equipment and the stimuli is needed before testing proceeds. Pure-tone audiometry only measures audibility thresholds, rather than other aspects of hearing such as sound localization and speech recognition. However, there are benefits to using pure-tone audiometry over other forms of hearing test, such as click auditory brainstem response (ABR). Pure-tone audiometry provides ear specific thresholds, and uses frequency specific pure tones to give place specific responses, so that the configuration of a hearing loss can be identified. As pure-tone audiometry uses both air and bone conduction audiometry, the type of loss can also be identified via the air-bone gap. Although pure-tone audiometry has many clinical benefits, it is not perfect at identifying all losses, such as ‘dead regions’ of the cochlea and neuropathies such as auditory processing disorder (APD). This raises the question of whether or not audiograms accurately predict someone's perceived degree of disability.
Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to clients who are hard of hearing, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the client's hearing abilities. Aural rehab includes specific procedures in which each therapy and amplification device has as its goal the habilitation or rehabilitation of persons to overcome the handicap (disability) caused by a hearing impairment or deafness.
Marion Downs was an American audiologist and professor emerita at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. She pioneered universal newborn hearing screening in the early 1960s and spent over 30 years advocating for its adoption in hospitals, as well as for the provision of hearing aids to infants displaying hearing loss. Her efforts were aimed at raising awareness within the medical community about the developmental challenges associated with childhood deafness. Thanks to her initiatives, 95 percent of newborns born in America today undergo screening for hearing loss. As a result of her efforts, 95 percent of all newborns in America today are screened for hearing loss. She devoted her professional life to the promotion of early identification of hearing loss in newborns, infants, and young children and to helping deaf and hard of hearing individuals lead fulfilling lives.
Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is a specific form of hearing loss defined by the presence of normal or near-normal otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) but the absence of normal middle ear reflexes and severely abnormal or completely absent auditory brainstem response (ABRs).
Universal neonatal hearing screening (UNHS), which is part of early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programmes, refer to those services aimed at screening hearing of all newborns, regardless of the presence of a risk factor for hearing loss. UNHS is the first step in the EHDI program which indicates whether a newborn requires further audiological assessment to determine the presence or absence of permanent hearing loss. Newborn hearing screening uses objective testing methods to screen the hearing of all newborns in a particular target region, regardless of the presence or absence of risk factors. Even among developed countries, until the 1990s, it could take years for hearing-impaired child to be diagnosed and to benefit from a health intervention and amplification. This delay still can happen in developing countries. If children are not exposed to sounds and language during their first years of life because of a hearing loss, they will have difficulty in developing spoken or signed language; cognitive development and social skills could also be affected. This screening separates children into two groups—those with a high index of suspicion and those with a low index of suspicion. Those in the first group are referred for diagnostic testing.
The International Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences and Research is managed by ASTHA Trust, founded by Mrs. Bishnupriya Mishra. The campus is located at KHANDAGIRI, in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. The institution provides 3 year +10 month degree course called BASLP.
The National Institute of Speech and Hearing (NISH) is an institute devoted to the education and rehabilitation of individuals with speech-language and hearing impairments located in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city in the Indian state of Kerala. It was established in 1997 on the initiative of the state of Kerala and is a self-financing affiliate college of the University of Kerala. Academics at NISH is unique in the sense that NISH has an integrated campus where students with hearing impairment and students with normal hearing share the same campus. Bachelor's level courses exclusively for students with hearing impairment include Degree courses in Fine Arts, Computer Science and Commerce affiliated to University of Kerala. On the other hand, NISH also provides RCI approved professional courses at undergraduate level and graduate level in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology as well as diploma courses affiliated to Kerala Health University (KUHS)
The Hear the World Foundation is a corporate nonprofit foundation founded by Sonova working towards equal opportunities and better quality of life for people with hearing loss. The Foundation operates as grant-giver supporting project-partnerships in four specific areas:
An audiologist, according to the American Academy of Audiology, "is a person who, by virtue of academic degree, clinical training, and license to practice and/or professional credential, is uniquely qualified to provide a comprehensive array of professional services related to the prevention of hearing loss and the audiologic identification, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of persons with impairment of auditory and vestibular function, and to the prevention of impairments associated with them."
Despite having the largest economy in South America or Central America, Brazil is still considered a developing country due to its low gross domestic product, or GDP, per capita, low living standards, high infant mortality rate and other factors. "With regard to hearing health, the Brazilian government established the national policy for giving attention to hearing health in 2004, in which the Ministry of Health, considering the social magnitude of hearing impairment in the Brazilian population and its consequences, presented the proposal to structure a network of services set up by regions and in hierarchy that aims to be implemented in all federative units of Brazil, with integrated actions to promote ear health, hearing impairment prevention, treatment and rehabilitation organized and managed by the National Health System, Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), in Portuguese," writes Bevilacqua et al. (2010)
According to The Deaf Unit Cairo, there are approximately 1.2 million deaf and hard of hearing individuals in Egypt aged five and older. Deafness can be detected in certain cases at birth or throughout childhood in terms of communication delays and detecting language deprivation. The primary language used amongst the deaf population in Egypt is Egyptian Sign Language (ESL) and is widely used throughout the community in many environments such as schools, deaf organizations, etc. This article focuses on the many different aspects of Egyptian life and the impacts it has on the deaf community.
Global Audiology is an open access platform designed to enhance understanding of audiology education and practice worldwide. Despite the global of hearing disorders the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a substantial gap between the need and access to hearing care services, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Among several audiological services that can be provided, it is estimated that only 17% of those who can benefit from a hearing aid have access to one. The WHO report emphasizes the importance of integrating ear and hearing care into national health plans to achieve universal health care coverage.