Open AccessThe impact of hearing impairment on Aboriginal children’s school attendance in remote Northern Territory: a data linkage study
Author(s) -
Su Jiunn-Yih,
He Vincent Yaofeng,
Guthridge Steven,
Howard Damien,
Leach Amanda,
Silburn Sven
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/1753-6405.12948
Subject(s) - attendance , medicine , demography , record linkage , population , hearing loss , socioeconomic status , public health , disadvantage , environmental health , audiology , economics , economic growth , nursing , sociology , political science , law
Objective: To investigate the association between hearing impairment (HI) and Year 1 school attendance in Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. Methods: Observational cohort study (n=3,744) by analysing linked individual‐level information for Aboriginal children from the NT Government school attendance records, NT Perinatal Register and Remote Hearing Assessment dataset, and community level data for relative remoteness, socioeconomic disadvantage and housing crowdedness. Results : Children with unilateral hearing loss, mild HI and moderate or worse HI had significantly lower Year 1 attendance than those with normal hearing, attending 5.6 (95%CI, −9.10 ∼−2.10), 4.0 (95%CI, −7.17 ∼−0.90) and 6.1 (95%CI, −10.71 ∼−1.49) days fewer, respectively. Other variables that yielded significant association were: male gender, having attended preschool less than 20% of available days, speaking English as second language, twin birth and average household size >5. Conclusions: Aboriginal children with any level of HI are likely to have lower school attendance rates in Year 1 than their peers with normal hearing. Implications for public health: In this population, where the prevalence of otitis media and accompanying HI remains extremely high, the early detection and management of hearing loss on entry into primary school should be included in the measures to improve school attendance.