Association between hearing impairment, school performance and cognitive function in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease

(1)College of Speech Therapy, Department of the Life Science, State University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.

(2)Department of the Life Science, College of Medicine, State University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.

(3)Postgraduate Course in Medicine and Human Health, Bahiana School of Medicine and Public Health, Salvador, Brazil.

(4)Department of Otolaryngology, University Hospital Professor Edgar Santos, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. 

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association among hearing impairment, school performance, and cognitive function in children and adolescents with sickle cell disease. METHODS: Thirty-one participants with sickle cell disease (SCD) and 31 healthy participants in the control-comparison group (CG), both aged 8-17 years underwent auditory system evaluation (pure tone audiometry and acoustic reflex), were screened for the risks of (central) auditory processing disorder and dysfunction of cognitive function using the Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), respectively, and were interviewed to obtain clinical data and data on school performance. RESULTS: In the SCD group, eight (25.8%) participants presented with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The group with SCD and SNHL presented a higher occurrence of poor school performance than the group of participants with SCD without SNHL (p = 0.016). The MMSE score for aspects related to attention and calculation in the SCD group with SNHL was lower than in the SCD group without SNHL (p = 0.016). In the SAB, the SCD group with SNHL presented a lower score than the SCD group without SNHL in aspects related to academic performance and attention.CONCLUSION: Hearing impairment in children and adolescents with SCD, specifically SNHL, is associated with poor school performance and enhances the risk of cognitive impairment in terms of attention and calculation.