Parental knowledge and attitudes to childhood hearing loss and hearing services in Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Successful audiology service delivery depends on support from the community, and agreement to utilize hearing healthcare programs. Assessment of parents' awareness regarding hearing loss (HL) and audiology services is necessary for the development of suitable hearing programs for children. Previous studies reported that early detection and intervention for hearing problems are typically strongly supported by parents. The current study sought to evaluate parents' knowledge and attitudes regarding childhood HL and hearing services. METHODS: A cross-sectional study conducted at five centers in Qassim region of Saudi Arabia. A self-report questionnaire was administered to collect demographic data in addition to 31 questions regarding the knowledge and attitudes of parents toward HL. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 21 was used for data analysis. A p-value cut-off point of 0.05 at 95% CI was used to determine statistical significance. The analyses examined the association between socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and attitudes toward HL using chi-square tests. RESULTS: Overall, participants included in this study were 243 participants. Of these, 105 (43.2%) were fathers, and 138 (56.8%) were mothers. Ages ranged from 21 to 60+ years. Assessment of the prevalence of various aspects of knowledge and attitudes among parents toward childhood HL revealed that 103 participants (42.4%) possessed good knowledge, while 140 participants (57.6%) possessed poor knowledge. In contrast, the attitude analysis revealed that 224 participants (92.2%) expressed positive attitudes, while only 19 participants (07.8%) showed a negative attitude regarding audiology services. We found a significant association between age group and knowledge (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Most parents in our sample possessed poor knowledge regarding childhood HL. However, most parents expressed positive attitudes regarding audiology services. The current findings suggest a need to increase awareness among parents regarding childhood HL.

School's Teachers Knowledge About Autism in Al-Badayacity, Al-Qassim Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

INTRODUCTION: The growing number of students with Autism will set challenge to school teachers to become better prepared to take the necessary action to serve and to assist children with autism. AIM: The aim in this study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of school teachers regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder in Badaya city of Al-Qassim region, kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to find out any differences in school teachers knowledge based on (gender, educational level, experience, contact with students with autism, type of school). METHODS: a cross sectional study was conducted in Badaya City on school teachers from December 2017 until March 2018 to assess their knowledge about Autism spectrum disorder. Autism knowledge Questionnaire was completed by 248 school teachers participated in the research study, data was collected from answers of the 30 questions of the questionnaire for all participants, and analyzed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: total level of knowledge in our sample of school teachers was 48.7%, a statistical significant differences between school teachers' knowledge based on type of school, contact with children with autism favoring public schools p value=0.00, and previous contact with students with autism p value=0.03 which have higher level of knowledge. Educational level, grade of teaching, experience, gender did not significantly affect teachers' knowledge. CONCLUSION: School teachers had a weak level of knowledge about Autism Spectrum disorder. Previous contact with students with autism definitely raises level of knowledge.