Most common additional diagnoses of children with hearing devices

The aim of this study was to analyze with the help of claims data which additional diagnoses are common for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) and at what frequency. Claims data sets from statutory health insurance providers contain different pieces of information, including medical diagnoses. The analysis of claims data was conducted for the 2010 birth cohort of 38,705 children who were insured by the BARMER health insurance company. This birth cohort was then narrowed down to all children who received a prescription for a hearing device within the first 10 years of their life (n = 474). For these 474 children, we assessed the most common additional diagnoses coded according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10-GM and analyzed their frequency. Apart from the high frequency of ear diseases such as "Diseases of middle ear and mastoid" (ICD category H65-H75, 95.4%), we also found a high frequency for "Developmental disorders" (ICD category F80-F89, 81.9%) and various other additional diagnoses. Our results show that DHH children are a heterogenous group with a high frequency of additional diagnoses.