Congenital non-syndromal deafness at Adamarobe, an isolated Ghanaian village: Prevalence, incidence and audiometric characteristics of deafness in the village (Part I).

A study to determine the prevalence, incidence and audiometric characteristics of deafness was done at Adamarobe, an isolated deaf village in Ghana. The procedures adopted include collection of family histories, pedigree, otoscopy and audiometric evaluation. As it turned out, a total of 45 deaf persons were identified in the 14 families with deaf individuals. Out of this number, 38 were alive. Only 30 of them finally participated in the study. 23 of them have a hearing remnant at the low and middle frequencies while the remaining 7 have total hearing loss. A total of 56 relatives of the deaf were identified. 23 of them were available for audiometric evaluation. 17 of the 23 had hearing loss in the better ear using a mid-frequency average of the threshold at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz. 14 had a mild sensorineural hearing loss while the remaining 3 had a moderate sensorineural hearing loss. The incidence of profound sensorineural hearing loss in the study population of 2,314 was 16 per 1000. Using a better ear hearing level of > 25 dB, the incidence of hearing-impairment in the village was 23.7 per 1000. JOURNAL OF THE GHANA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION Volume 1 Number 2, January (1999) pp. 63-6