Deafness in Italy: an epidemiological and socio-demographic study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Hearing loss is very common in our society, but epidemiological data on deafness in Italy is lacking. A.I.R.S. onlus (Italian Association for Research on Deafness) yearly launches the National Day for the Fight Against Deafness (NDFAD). During this events, that are held every year, it is possible to perform a free hearing test in all the facilities that have joined the initiative throughout Italy (240 hospitals joined in 2011). AIM: to report data collected throughout the "A.I.R.S. National Day for the Fight against Deafness" of the last years, focusing in particular but not only on audiometric outcomes. METHODS: demographic and social data, as well as audiometric outcomes, was collected on forms that have been subsequently stored in a on-line database and analyzed with MySQL and Microsoft Excel. CONCLUSIONS: This data are important in order to describe the "hearing health" of the Italian population, and is a first step towards creating a database with epidemiological and preventive aims, a strongly felt need both at national and at regional level.