Determinants of hearing loss in children with cerebral palsy in Kano, Nigeria.

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a commonly occurring disorder of movement and posture that starts in early childhood. It is accompanied by other disturbances including hearing loss which has been shown to worsen the quality of life of the patients due to problems associated with speech and language acquisition. Several factors are responsible for developing hearing loss in CP. Aims: To determine the factors that can help in early diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss in children with cerebral palsy. Methodology: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted among 165 randomly selected children with CP. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain relevant sociodemographic and clinical information. The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Product and Services Solution (SPSS) version 21. Results: The age range of the participants was 1–12 years, with a mean age and standard deviation (SD) of 4.49 ± 2.85. The male to female ratio was 2:1. The commonest type of CP encountered was of spastic variety seen in 47.3%, while the least encountered variety was of the ataxic type, seen in only 4.2%;46.7% of the children were reported to have hearing impairment by their guardian. Other comorbidities reported included epilepsy (33.9%), speech impairment (27.3%), mental retardation (17.0%) and visual impairment (8.5%). A statistically significant association was found between the presence of comorbidities (P = 0.05) and hearing loss among children with CP. Conclusion: Hearing impairment is common among children with CP. Several factors are associated with the development of hearing loss among children with CP. However, only presence of comorbidities was found to be a significant determinant of hearing loss among children with CP.