Prevalence of 2.2 per mille of significant hearing loss at school age suggests rescreening after NHS.

Objectives: The study aims to determine the prevalence of different degrees of significant hearing loss in a complete sample of Austrian school-age children born between 1997 and 2001 living in the federal state of Carinthia and to evaluate the role of Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) in the identification of later hearing loss.

Methods: In Carinthia, all school-age children with significant hearing loss (mean pure tone average in the better ear above 40 dB) are registered by the Department of Education. From five complete birth cohorts from 1997 to 2001 (n = 28.