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Development and Evaluation of a Childhood Hearing Loss Training Program for Primary Healthcare Professionals in Malaysia
PM Dr. Rafidah Mazlan
Dr. Basyariatul Fathi Othman
Airenchara Habir
Mohamad Firdaus bin Latip
Muhamad Hazwan bin Abdullah
Late identification and intervention of childhood hearing loss remain a challenge in Malaysia. One barrier may arise from the lack of knowledge towards hearing loss in children among healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals at the primary care level are typically the first point of contact for newborns and parents on the infant’s medical and developmental needs. Hence, they are in the best position to promote and educate parents about childhood hearing loss. Currently, there is very little information about how aware primary care health professionals are about this 2 topic. Previous studies have shown that the lack of knowledge about childhood hearing loss results in delay or failure in referring the affected children to the appropriate hearing health professionals. Therefore, it is crucial to systematically educate primary health care professionals on childhood hearing loss to avoid delayed diagnosis and intervention.
Childhood Hearing Loss Awareness Program: Act Now, HEARS HOW!
PM Dr. Rafidah Mazlan
Dr. Basyariatul Fathi Othman
Airenchara Habir
Mohamad Firdaus bin Latip
Muhamad Hazwan bin Abdullah
Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions, i childhood. Undetected hearing loss can negatively impact language and speech acquisition, academic performance, and the psychological well-being of the children. Despite these severe consequences, there remains a lack of awareness in society about childhood hearing loss. In Malaysia, a lack of understanding of these impact contributes to an increasein deafult to follow-up tests among children with hearing loss, leading to the late detection and intervention in this population. To improve the situation, there is a need to raise awareness about childhood hearing loss among the healthcare professionals, especially those working closely with the community.
This project is a continuation from the Hear and Be Heard Campaign conducted from 2017- 2020. Besides delivering the awareness program, we conducted a study that assessed the physicians’ knowledge after attending the campaign. Most participants (>80%) provide correct answers on questions related to general facts of hearing loss. However, they showed poor knowledge on risk factors associated with delayed onset of hearing loss. In addition, 80.2% of them were not confident in explaining about childhood hearing loss to parents. These findings indicate the need to continue the awareness program via online training and further improve the educational materials used in the campaign. Online training is of particular importance in this era of the Covid 19 pandemic. Moreover, online learning is more cost- and time-efficient than traditional face-to-face training to both organizers and participants.