1. Prospective long-term follow-up after grommet insertion: Hearing and functional health outcomes in children.
- Author
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Pokorny MA, MacFater W, Meshulam-Weiss I, and Ahmad Z
- Abstract
Objectives: To assess hearing levels and functional health outcomes of children two years after routine grommet surgery with standard care follow-up (discharge to General Practitioner (GP) care or Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) clinic appointment at 4-8 weeks)., Methods: Prospective cohort study of 89 children (average age of 7.98 years) recalled for audiological assessment 2 years after grommet surgery in a large ENT outpatient service in South Auckland, New Zealand. Functional health was assessed using parent-reported responses to the OMQ20 questionnaire., Results: 46 (51.7 %) children had hearing loss in at least one ear with 28 (31.5 %) children having bilateral hearing loss. Māori children had statistically higher odds compared to non-Māori children (odds ratio 5.491, p = .003) to have bilateral hearing loss after controlling for age, household deprivation, gender, season, and mode of follow-up. Most parents reported concerns with their child's hearing, speech, attention-seeking behaviours, and nasal symptoms, but not ear problems. Bilateral hearing loss (p < .001) was found to significantly predict functional health status (total OMQ20 score)., Conclusions: The high prevalence of hearing loss and functional health concerns suggest that the standard follow-up care is not adequately managing children after routine grommet insertion. Māori children are disproportionately impacted, and post-grommet follow-up schedules must consider individualised approaches to address these inequities in outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Michelle Pokorny reports financial support and administrative support were provided by Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand Counties Manukau. Michelle Pokorny reports a relationship with Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand Counties Manukau that includes: employment and funding grants. Inbal Meshulam-Weiss reports a relationship with Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand Counties Manukau that includes: employment. Zahoor Ahmad reports a relationship with Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand Counties Manukau that includes: employment. Wiremu MacFater reports a relationship with Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Waikato that includes: employment. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2024
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