Hearing disorders at the candidates of the National Gendarmerie’s competition, Ivory Coast.

Objective: Detect the hearing deficiencies of the candi­da­tes of the gendarmerie’s competition.

Material And Method: Pros­pec­tive study realized over 3 years (2008-2010), in the ENT service of the Gendarmerie to Agban (Abidjan). Examination included an otoscopy and a pure tone audiometry.

Results: On 23121 candidates, 1245 had a plug of earwax (5.4%). They were aged from 18 to 25 years old (average age: 22.85 years). Eardrum was pathological in 0.5 % of the cases. Prevalence of hearing loss was 1.5%. Hearing loss included sensorineural hearing loss (56.7%), deafness of transmission (29.4%) and mixed deafness (13.9%). Deafness was unilateral in 79.8% and bilateral in 20.2%.

Conclusion: Result of audio­gram will be useful for tracking or assessing cases of noise-induced hearing loss attributable to military service.