2022 Type and Severity Summary of Identified Cases of Deaf or Hard of Hearing

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Data Source: 2022 CDC Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Hearing Screening & Follow-up Survey (HSFS)

Background: CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities promotes the health of babies, children, and adults, with a focus on preventing birth defects and developmental disabilities and optimizing the health outcomes of people with disabilities. As part of these efforts, the center is actively involved in addressing the early identification of infants who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH).

Between 1 and 2 per 1,000 infants in the United States are D/HH; when left undetected, being D/HH can delay a child’s speech, language, social, and emotional development.1 To ensure infants who are D/HH are identified as soon after birth as possible, states and territories have implemented Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs. These EHDI programs work to ensure all infants

  • Have hearing screened, ideally before 1 month of age.
  • Receive diagnostic, audiologic evaluation (for those not passing the screening), ideally before 3 months of age.
  • Are enrolled in early intervention (for those identified as D/HH), ideally before 6 months of age2

The Hearing Screening and Follow-up Survey (HSFS) is a voluntary survey sent out annually by CDC to each jurisdictional EHDI program. It requests aggregated hearing information on infants born in a specified calendar year (e.g., 2022). The survey helps assess the progress of EHDI efforts to identify infants who are D/HH across the United States. This summary of the 2022 HSFS highlights EHDI-related information for babies born between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022.

Terminology in this document and subsequent 2022 HSFS summaries are based on current recommendations2,3:

  • Typical Hearing: Hearing thresholds recorded within the normal range of hearing (-10 to 15 dB HL for children and -10 to 25 dB HL for adults) on an audiogram. Formerly, in previous HSFS summaries, CDC used “normal hearing”.
  • Deaf or Hard of Hearing: reduced hearing/decreased hearing thresholds at birth obtained outside of the typical range of hearing. Formerly, in previous HSFS summaries, CDC used “permanent hearing loss”.

This summary highlights type, severity, and laterality of reduced hearing for babies born between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. Categories are based on the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) classification system for reduced hearing. The ASHA categories are as follows:

ASHA Categories
Level of Reduced Hearing ASHA Hearing Loss Range (dB HL)
Normal -10 to 15
Slight 16 to 25
Mild 26 to 40
Moderate 41 to 55
Moderately severe 56 to 70
Severe 71 to 90
Profound 91+

 

Number of Survey Respondents Who Provided Type and Severity Data: 55α (49 states, 5 territories, 1 district) AK, American Samoa, AZ, AR, CA, CO, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, CT, DE, District of Columbia, FL, GA, Guam, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, Palau, PA, Puerto Rico, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY

2022 Type and Severity Summary of Identified Cases of Hearing Loss (By Ear):ASHA Classification
Total Number of Reported Infants who are D/HH, 2022 CDC EHDI HSFS 6,272 Children
BILATERAL (by Ear) UNILATERAL (by Ear) LATERALITY UNKNOWN (i.e., unknown if case is a unilateral or bilateral)
RIGHT EAR LEFT EAR UNKNOWN EAR (level of reduced hearing for each ear) RIGHT EAR LEFT EAR UNKNOWN EAR
Sensorineural Slight 44 39 0 0 8 8 0 0
Mild 566 559 2 2 82 96 0 2
Moderate 573 567 1 1 82 91 0 3
Moderately Severe 293 292 0 0 40 56 0 0
Severe 237 259 0 0 73 73 0 1
Profound 567 557 0 0 141 148 0 1
Unknown Severity 58 54 0 0 6 11 0 0
Conductive Slight 6 7 0 0 2 0 0 0
Mild 69 56 0 0 38 14 0 0
Moderate 65 76 0 0 98 39 0 1
Moderately Severe 72 73 0 0 163 107 0 0
Severe 31 29 0 0 44 17 0 2
Unknown Severity 48 44 0 0 63 51 0 2
Mixed Slight 1 2 0 0 2 1 0 0
Mild 39 42 0 0 7 4 0 0
Moderate 81 93 0 0 27 25 0 0
Moderately Severe 83 73 0 0 24 22 0 0
Severe 57 53 0 0 16 18 0 0
Profound 42 50 0 0 9 8 0 0
Unknown Severity 21 12 0 0 6 4 0 0
Type Unknown Slight 12 19 0 0 5 5 0 1
Mild 100 78 0 0 15 14 0 7
Moderate 61 79 1 1 11 14 0 10
Moderately Severe 35 35 0 0 17 17 0 4
Severe 19 28 0 0 13 12 0 2
Profound 35 36 0 0 11 14 0 3
Unknown Severity 151 149 2 2 43 36 10 363
Auditory Neuropathy Slight 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mild 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
Moderate 5 4 0 0 2 0 0 0
Moderately Severe 4 4 0 0 0 2 0 0
Severe 3 4 0 0 1 3 0 0
Profound 22 23 0 0 17 15 0 0
Unknown Severity 118 113 0 0 48 54 0 0
Totals by Ear 3,518 3,510 6 6 1,115 979 10 402
Totals by Child 3,514 6 1,115 979 10 402
Laterality Totals (by Child) 3,520 Bilateral Cases* 2,104 Unilateral Cases
Total all Types and Severity (by Child) 6,026
Cases Resolved (i.e., hearing loss to no hearing loss)  246
Overall Total (by Child) 6,272

*Type and severity may be different for each ear; it is not necessarily the same for both ears. We have type and severity reported for 3,518 right ears and 3,510 left ears. If we want to translate ears to children, we take the average of both ears and get 3,514 children. We have 6 in unknown ear 1 and 6 in unknown ear 2 and to translate that to children, we take the average of both and get 6. Therefore, we add 3,514 and 6 and get 3,520 children (e.g., bilateral cases).

Table Explained:
From Part I Diagnostic Data section, we have 6,272 children who are D/HH reported for 2022, so this section reports type and severity of reduced hearing for those children. This table shows that we have 3,520 bilateral cases, 2,104 unilateral cases, and 402 unknown laterality cases which brings total of 6,026 children. Part I Diagnostic Data section reports initial diagnosis and sometimes D/HH diagnosis is later determined to be typical hearing and that had occurred for 246 children (“Cases Resolved”). Therefore, no type and severity information were reported for those 246 children. That brings us to the total of 6,272.

Summary of Type and Severity of Identified Cases of Deaf or Hard of Hearing in 2022

References

1American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Effects of hearing loss on development. Available at: https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/effects-of-hearing-loss-on-development.
Accessed April 8, 2022

2Year 2019 Position Statement: Principles and Guidelines for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Programs (2019). Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention, 4(2), 1-44. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/jehdi/vol4/iss2/1/

Table of Contents

  1. 2022 Annual Data Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program
  2. 2022 Summary of National CDC EHDI Data
  3. 2022 Summary of Hearing Screening Among Total Occurrent Births
  4. 2022 Summary of Detailed Hearing Screening Results
  5. 2022 Summary of Infants Screened Before 1 Month of Age
  6. 2022 Summary of Reasons for No Documented Hearing Screening Among Total Occurrent Births
  7. 2022 Summary of Diagnostics Among Infants Not Passing Hearing Screening
  8. 2022 Summary of Infants Not Passing Hearing Screening Diagnosed Before 3 Months of Age
  9. 2022 Summary of Reasons for No Documented Diagnosis Among Infants Not Passing Hearing Screening
  10. 2022 Summary of Early Intervention (EI) Among Infants Identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing
  11. 2022 Summary of Infants Identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing Enrolled in Early Intervention (EI) Before 6 Months of Age
  12. 2022 Summary of Reasons for No Documented Early Intervention (EI) Services Among Infants Identified as Deaf or Hard of Hearing
  13. ›2022 Type and Severity Summary of Identified Cases of Deaf or Hard of Hearing
  14. 2022 Demographics