Background: hearing loss is a major health care problem that tends to retard the developmental milestones of children. It takes early detection and intervention to avoid a permanent loss in acquisition of speech and cognitive functions. Hence, the importance of hearing screening in all children especially in the developing world for accurate statistics and early intervention is clear. This work was aimed at predicting hearing in children by means of acoustic reflex measurements
Method: In this study which was performed in 1995, 146 ears(86 children aged between 5-10years old referring to audio logy clinic in Tehran university of medical sciences between august 1995 and February 1996) were evaluated (amongst 95 were normal and 51 ears with SNHL<84dB).the methods Niemeyer and Destrehan formula ,Lilly2 equation, un weighed Sensitivity prediction by acoustic reflex, weighed sensitivity prediction by acoustic reflex to establish their clinical viability.
Results: findings demonstrated that weighed sensitivity prediction by acoustic reflex(WASPAR) have a good correlation with conventional audiometric evaluation(K=.78) and also it has good sensitivity, Specificity , Negative predicted value(NPA) and positive predicted value (PPV).
Conclusion: In case that conventional audiometry is not applicable, WASPAR is a good objective choice in lieu of subjective tests.