To describe how childhood hearing loss is categorised across Australian hearing health services and assess whether existing categorisation systems can be harmonised into a single national framework to support consistent, equitable data collection and reporting.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No immediate change to individual clinical practice is required, but audiologists working in paediatric services should be aware of inconsistent classification systems across Australia, which may affect data sharing, research comparisons, and funding decisions.
Harmonising paediatric hearing loss classification across Australia would improve data quality, support national epidemiological research, and enable more equitable, consistent service delivery for children with hearing loss.
- 01Examines how childhood hearing loss is classified across Australian paediatric audiology services.
- 02Finds variation in classification systems used by different services nationwide.
- 03Evaluates whether existing systems can be harmonised into a single framework.
- 04Published in the International Journal of Audiology.
- 05Has policy and data-infrastructure implications for national paediatric hearing programs.
Hearing loss classification systems used across Australian paediatric hearing health services are inconsistent and not easily harmonised.
studyunclear- PMID
- 42967821
- DOI
- 10.1080/14992027.2026.2749168.
- Journal
- International Journal of Audiology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Australian paediatric hearing health services and their classification data for children with hearing loss
- Intervention
- Audit and comparison of hearing loss classification systems across paediatric services
Primary outcomes
Degree of variation in hearing loss classification systems across services; Feasibility of harmonising existing classification frameworks