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Barriers to Equity in Pediatric Hearing Health Care: A Review of the Evidence
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Barriers to Equity in Pediatric Hearing Health Care: A Review of the Evidence

Sarah Kingsbury, Nicole Khvalabov, Jonathan Stirn, Cara Held, Stephanie M. Fleckenstein, Kristi Hendrickson and Elizabeth A. Walker
Perspectives of the ASHA special interest groups, Vol.7(4), pp.1060-1071
01/20/2022
DOI: 10.1044/2021_PERSP-21-00188
PMCID: PMC9585532
PMID: 36275486

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Abstract

Purpose: We review the evidence regarding barriers to hearing health care for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Background: There are considerable data to suggest that hearing health care disparities constitute a major factor in loss to follow-up or documentation for children going through the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention process. Families are affected by a combination of factors underlying these disparities, resulting in delayed care and suboptimal developmental outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Conclusions: To address the socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic inequities seen in the diagnosis and management of childhood hearing loss, pediatric audiologists and speech-language pathologists have a responsibility to provide culturally responsive practice to their individual clients and their families, as well as advocate for substantive changes at the policy level that impact their clients' daily lives.

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