{"doi":"10.1017/s1463423625000246","title":"Hearing loss characteristics and cerumen management efficacy in low-income South African communities: a cross-sectional study","abstract":"AIM: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of hearing loss in a self-referred adult cohort in low-income South African communities and to evaluate the effectiveness of a cerumen management protocol within a community-based service setting. BACKGROUND: Hearing loss affects 1.5 billion people globally, with a disproportionate impact on individuals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and the elderly, often attributed to age-related factors and cerumen impaction. Despite the high prevalence, access to ear and hearing care remains challenging, particularly in LMICs, such as Africa. METHODS: A total of 227 participants aged 43-102 were recruited from two community centres in low-income South African communities for hearing evaluation and cerumen management for those with cerumen impaction. A cross-sectional, predominantly quantitative approach was used. FINDINGS: Video otoscopy of 448 ears revealed normal findings in 57.9%, cerumen impaction in 29.1%, and other abnormalities in 1.3%. The prevalence of confirmed hearing loss was 97.8%, primarily mild (45.8%), and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) was the most common (55.3%). Cerumen impaction accompanied hearing loss in 28.4% of cases. Post-treatment, 50.9% of participants with cerumen impaction showed normal otoscopy results, with mean hearing improvements of 16.2 dB (±17.9 SD) in the left ears and 15.8 dB (±17.2 SD) in the right ears, though overall significance was limited. CONCLUSION: The high prevalence of hearing loss and cerumen impaction in low-income communities emphasizes the importance of ear care in primary healthcare (PHC) settings, especially for the elderly. Effective community-based cerumen management highlights the potential of integrating community resources and task-shifting strategies for cost-effective ear care in resource-limited settings.","journal":"Primary Health Care Research & Development","year":2025,"id":538985,"datarank":0.20794415416798362,"base_score":1.3862943611198906,"endowment":1.3862943611198906,"self_citation_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.20794415416798362,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9536,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":866209,"name":"Caitlin Frisby","orcid":"0000-0002-9922-2927","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1425789,"name":"Tarryn Marisca Reddy","orcid":"0000-0002-0056-8486","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":866211,"name":"Tersia de Kock","orcid":"0000-0003-2850-1598","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":571076,"name":"De Wet Swanepoel","orcid":"0000-0001-8313-1636","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1425788,"name":"Sello Marven Manganye","orcid":"0000-0002-5722-2275","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":68,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:52:25.799399Z","pmid":"40059819","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}