PURPOSE: To characterize complaints, symptoms and risk factors related to hearing loss in children with hearing loss suspicion in the Health I District in Recife/Brazil. METHODS: experience report on the participation of Community Health Agents-CHA, having being trained on hearing health, in order identify children with hearing complaints. Visits were made at the indicated homes and to the health center and 80 mothers were interviewed, getting up information on 117 children aged from 0 to 7 years. For the data analysis of were privileged information on: otologic and audiologic complaints, and hearing risk factors. RESULTS: 35 children (29%) had one or more otologic and / or hearing complaints. The two main symptoms were: otologic (74.2%) and otorrhea (34.2%) earache. The most frequent hearing symptoms were: difficulty in understanding other people talk (25.7%) and decreased hearing (20%). According to risk factors, we found in 57 (48.7%) children one or more factors, which are: maternal use of alcohol (59.6%), hereditary deafness background(43.8%) and maternal use of illicit drugs (39.8%) during pregnancy. CONCLUSION: the earache was the main identified symptom and the difficulty for understanding was the most frequent complaint. The most important risk factors were the use of alcohol and illicit drugs, such as marijuana and crack, during pregnancy.
Deafness; Child; Public Health; Consumer Participation; Audiology