Validity of the French Version of Deafness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents

Neonatal sensorineural hearing loss is a frequent pathology, affecting around 800 newborns per year in France, or an incidence of 0.8 to 1.3 per 1000 births, comparable to other industrialized countries. It can affect the development of speech and language and lead to impaired quality of life.

Studies have shown that children with hearing loss score lower on general quality-of-life measurement tools, compared to their normal-hearing peers. A poorer quality of life in patients with sensorineural hearing loss may also reflect physical, academic, social or emotional difficulties. They are also exposed to an increased risk of poor development of language and social skills, as well as an increased risk of developing psychiatric pathologies.

The care of deafness in children is difficult and the relevance of interventions is difficult to evaluate based on audiometric measurements alone.

Generic pediatric quality of life tools have been validated and used, among other things, to assess the quality of life of children with deafness. However, these non-specific tools do not make it possible to precisely target which factors and interventions are the most important for the quality of life in this population.

Achieving a score to monitor the quality of life objectively over time is fundamental to verify the effectiveness of interventions, and assess the impact on the child. There is currently no validated test in French for any of these uses and populations.