Overview

Mild Matters is a research project which aims to find out if hearing aids can help babies and young children with bilateral mild hearing loss. 

Babies can be born with different degrees of hearing loss. Hearing aids can help babies with moderate or greater degrees of hearing loss, but we do not know whether they help babies with mild hearing loss. This study helps us answer this important question.

Throughout 2018 and 2019, we are inviting babies and children to take part in this project who:

• have mild permanent hearing loss in both ears
• are less than 2 years old
• are from NSW, QLD or VIC
• have been diagnosed within the last three months

More resources

• National Acoustic Laboratories
• Newborn Infant Hearing Screening Program - Victoria
• Newborn Infant Hearing Screening Program - New South Wales
• Newborn Infant Hearing Screening Program - Queensland

Research team

Our research

Universal Newborn Hearing Screening, introduced in Australia between 2002 and 2007, has led to an earlier diagnosis of babies born with hearing loss. This means that soon after birth, infants can receive early intervention (hearing devices, cochlear implants, speech pathology).  

We know early detection and early intervention improve outcomes for children with moderate, severe or profound hearing loss, but the same does not seem to apply for children with mild hearing loss. The reason for this lack of benefit is unclear.

The research around the impact of hearing aids for children with mild hearing loss is limited to a few small studies in older children, which had mixed findings regarding any benefit. Therefore, we do not know whether hearing aids benefit babies with mild hearing loss. This is an important issue, because it is now common for infants/children with mild hearing loss to be fitted with hearing aids.

In 2017, Australian Hearing (the government-funded organisation that provides hearing services to all children with hearing loss under the age of 26 years in Australia) recorded that around 55% of hearing device fittings in Australian children less than 2 years old had mild hearing loss (2017 Australian Hearing Report)(1).

Mild Matters Qualitative Study

Since late 2017, Mild Matters chief investigators Dr Valerie Sung and Dr Teresa Ching have been collaborating on a qualitative study to understand the current practices, experiences and decision-making processes of audiologists who work with infants with bilateral mild hearing loss. The study also explores parents’ experiences and perceptions of the decision-making process around hearing aid fitting and the positive and negative effects of their infants with mild hearing loss wearing hearing aids. Results from this study will be available soon.

Mild Matters Trial

This study is a randomised controlled trial comparing outcomes of children less than 2 years old who are fitted with hearing aids (intervention) versus those are not fitted with hearing aids.

The Mild Matters trial will help:

1. Guide clinicians in managing children with mild hearing loss,
2. Reduce the burdens that these families currently face, and
3. Justify a costly intervention.

If you are interested in taking part in this study or have questions about the research, please contact us.