Department of Physiotherapy, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil; Laboratory of Pediatric Studies (LEPED), Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
INTRODUCTION: Some studies have demonstrated a parallelism between the extent of hearing loss and the frequency of vestibular dysfunction in children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Despite this, little is known about the repercussion of degrees of hearing loss and etiological factors on the balance performance in this children.
OBJECTIVE: Compare the balance performance between normal hearing (NH) children and those with SNHL, considering the sex and age range of the sample, and analyze balance performance according to the degrees of hearing loss and etiological factors in the latter group.
METHODS: Cross-sectional study that assessed 96 children (48 NH and 48 with SNHL), aged between 7 and 18 years old. The balance performance was assessed by the Brazilian version of the Pediatric Balance Scale, validated for Brazilian child population and the Mann-Whitney test used for statistical analysis.
RESULTS: The group with SNHL showed lower average balance performance compared to NH (p = 0.000). This was also observed when the children were grouped by sex: female and male (p = 0.001). The same difference occurred when the children were stratified by age group: 7-14 years old (p = 0.000). There were no differences between the balance performance of the groups according to the degrees of hearing loss (p = 0.236) and the children with prematurity or post-natal meningitis as an etiological factor demonstrated the worst balance performance.
CONCLUSION: The children with SNHL showed worse balance performance compared to NH of the same sex and age range between seven to fourteen years. There were no differences between balance performance and hearing loss degrees, and those children with prematurity or post-natal meningitis as an etiological factor demonstrated the worst balance performances.