Lower thriving among females with hearing impairment than males - a cross-sectional study of 185 primary and secondary students in Greenland

Cecilie Friis Skovsen, Jakob Schmidt Jensen, Ramon Gordon Jensen, Christina Schnohr*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
25 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The prevalence of ear infections and hearing i mpairment among Greenlandic children is amajor public health problem, and studies investigating the association between hearing impairment and thriving among Greenlandic children are scarce. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hearing impairment and thriving in asample of school-children in Sisimiut, Greenland. This cross-sectional study included children from 5th to 10th grade from two schools in Sisimiut and two schools located in nearby settlements. Participants filled out aquestionnaire and underwent ear examination and audiometry. Binary logistic regression examined the associations of hearing impairment and thriving variables defined as self-rated health, headache and school satisfaction. 179 children participated from schools in Sisimiut, and 6 children were from schools in settlements. The prevalence of hearing impairment was 10% among school-children in Sisimiut. There was atendency among girls with hearing impairment to have higher odds ratios for low self-rated health, often headache and low school-satisfaction. This study indicates that girls with hearing impairment are more susceptible to low thriving compared to girls with normal hearing. Interventions targeting the thriving of hearing impairment among children in Greenland should take gender differences into account.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1921995
JournalInternational Journal of Circumpolar Health
Volume80
Issue number1
ISSN1239-9736
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

  • “adolescence”
  • “children”
  • “Greenland”
  • “Hearing impairment”
  • “social factors“
  • “thriving”

Cite this