Health status and health-related quality of life preference-based outcomes of children who are aged 7 to 9 years and have bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the health status and health-related quality of life preference-based outcomes of children with diagnosed bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment and a comparison group of English-speaking children with normal hearing.

Methods: We studied 120 children who were aged 7 to 9 years and had bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment of moderate or greater severity, identified from a cohort of 156,733 children who were born in 8 districts of southern England, and 63 English-speaking children with normal hearing and the same place of birth and age at assessment. Principal caregivers were interviewed by using the Health Utilities Index Mark III questionnaire for proxy-assessed usual health status assessment.

The economic costs of congenital bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment.

Objective: The objective of this study was to estimate the economic costs of bilateral permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) in the preceding year of life for children aged 7 to 9 years.

Methods: A cost analysis was conducted by using a birth cohort of children born between 1992 and 1997 in 8 districts of Southern England, of which half had been born into populations exposed to universal newborn screening (UNS). Unit costs were applied to estimates of health, social, and broader resource use made by 120 hearing-impaired children and 63 children in a normally hearing comparison group.