Conferences and Symposia
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Conference papers presented at Conferences and Symposia organized by the Faculty of Medicine are collected under this subcommunity
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Item Effectiveness of vocal hygiene education among undergraduate music students with self-reported voice problems at University of Visual Performing Arts and University of Kelaniya(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Nagahawatta, W.M.M.D.; Jayasena, B.N.Background: Voice is the fundamental source of communication and plays an important role in daily life. Voice can indicate personal information such as the speaker’s social status, personal characteristics, and emotional state. Occupational voice users, such as singers, teachers, and lawyers are more likely than non-professionals to develop voice disorders. By abusing or misusing their voices, professional singers are more likely to acquire laryngeal signs and symptoms, as well as pathology. Objectives: To assess the Effectiveness of a Vocal Hygiene Program among undergraduate music students with self – reported voice problems in visual preforming university and Kelaniya University. This study aim was to determine the effectiveness of a virtual vocal hygiene education program on improving self-reported voice problems in undergraduate music students by comparing the Voice Handicap Index 10 score, Voice Related Quality of life score and acoustic parameters of voice before and after conducting the virtual vocal hygiene education program.Methods: This study included 30 undergraduate music students from the University of Visual and Performing Arts and the University of Kelaniya with self-reported vocal problems. The pre-scores were obtained after participants completed a self-administered voice case history, Voice Related Quality of Life, Voice Handicap Index -10, and voice samples. The study's participants were given a 30–45-minute vocal hygiene program that included basic voice production knowledge and 15 vocal hygiene tips. Participants in the study were required to follow the supplied vocal hygiene recommendations consistently for three weeks. At the end of the three weeks, all participants were given the Voice Handicap Index -10 and the Voice Related Quality of Life to collect post-test ratings, as well as voice samples to identify pre post results. Descriptive stats for demographic information of the participants mean and standard deviation of the pre and post voice handicap index -10, voice related quality of life and acoustic parameters. PRRAT software was used to analyse the voice samples. Inferential statistics for the mean difference in pre to post scores via paired t test was used to analyse the collected data.Results: There is a statistically significant difference between the pre- and post- tests (P < 0.05) suggesting a positive association between complying with a vocal hygiene program and the reduction of voice related symptoms. The jitter and the shimmer parameters were significantly lower in the post-test compared to the pre- test. Mean intensity, mean pitch and the HNR values were significantly higher in post- test compared to the pre -test.Conclusion: The conclusion of this study is that an effectively used vocal hygiene program can reduce the voice-related symptoms of undergraduate music students with self-reported voice problems.Item Central Auditory Processing Skills in children with a history of early-onset Otitis Media: A scoping review(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Damayanthi, T.G.J.L.; Umesha, T.; de Silva, M.D.K.; Jayasena, B.N.Background: Central auditory processing is characterized by the perception and processing of neural information related to the auditory inputs through the human ears and it is vital for speech perception, language skills, and complex learning functions. Auditory deprivation in the early years of life impacts neural maturation of the central auditory nervous system and lowers the ability to process neural information related to aural inputs. Otitis media is known to be the most frequent middle ear infection and a common reason for auditory deprivation among the paediatric population worldwide. Hence, this study focused on auditory deprivation due to otitis media during the early years of life. Many primary pieces of research have been conducted to assess the long-term influence of auditory deprivation due to otitis media on central auditory processing, which lasts over years even after the resolution of the middle ear condition. This study reviewed literature where the long-term effect of otitis media is assessed through behavioural and electrophysiological measures, in children with a history of otitis media within the first five years of their lives. Objectives: To summarize Audiological assessments used to evaluate central auditory processing and to describe central auditory processing skills in children with a history of early-onset otitis media. Methods: This review followed the methodological framework outlined by Arksey & O̕̕Mally (2005) and developed by Levac et al. (2010). Studies conducted from 2000-2020 involving human participants aged ≤18 years, belonging to any gender or geographical context, having a history of otitis media within the first 5 years of life, having normal hearing and normal middle ear condition by the time of study conducted, were included in the review. Studies involving participants with any type of hearing loss before the age of 05 years due to other reasons except otitis media, comment/text literature, and studies with no free accessibility to the full text, and an English translation were excluded. Literature was searched in PubMed, EBSCO host, and Scopus databases, and eligibility was assessed by two reviewers independently. Included studies were critically appraised using standard tools. Extracted data were reported following the systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews checklist.Results: The review resulted in 13 eligible articles. Some have used behavioural measures only (08), and electrophysiological measures only (03) while 02 have used both. Poor auditory processing skills and alterations in electrophysiological measurements were reported in children with a history of otitis media within the first five years of their lives, compared to children without a history. Conclusion: As per the reviewed studies, there is a negative association between central auditory processing and the history of otitis media within the first five years of life, which persists beyond its resolution.Item A Survey on current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology among audiology professionals in Sri Lanka(University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2022) Prabodani, G.V.; Jayasena, B.N.Background: With the advancement of technology and resources, telehealth is becoming a prominent method of filling the gaps in conventional audiology services across the world. Teleaudiology services in Sri Lanka are evolving and still is an under addressed area of local literature compared to other telehealth applications in the medical sector. Objectives: To describe the current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology and factors affecting planning and implementation of teleaudiology services in Sri Lanka. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted among 104 (n=104) audiology professionals employed in public and private audiology work setups across the country. Objectives of the study were evaluated through an online self-administered questionnaire, which was configured as a Google form. Results: The study yielded a response rate of 83.87% and a majority (75.0%) of the participants were female and the age distribution of participants was between 25 and 45 years. A majority (79.8%) of the practitioners reported awareness on teleaudiology while 32.7% of them were utilizing teleaudiology in practice. Initiation of teleaudiology was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic for the majority. Audiology practitioners reported the use of telepractice predominantly in counselling, education, training, hearing aid related rehabilitation, and prevention of hearing and balance related conditions as individual or group sessions, utilizing a hybrid telehealth model. More than 75.0% of the services were centralized within the Western province in private centres and the teen to adult age range was served through telepractice predominantly. Despite practices, several factors and challenges were reported to influence teleaudiology practices, including the lack of facilities and resources as the major challenge while reporting several benefits of practice also. Conclusions: The findings of the study indicate that teleaudiology services are currently available in Sri Lanka, but it is centralized within a narrow geographic area and primarily restricted only to certain services. No information can be derived on the trend of teleaudiology in Sri Lanka due to the lack of evidence in the existing literature. This study sheds a light on current knowledge and practices of teleaudiology with an emphasis on factors affecting it, which will assist in improving services further.Item Prevalence of External and Middle Ear Pathologies among Students with Hearing Impairment in School Settings(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Perera, N.C.S.; Chandrasekara, J.M.A.U.; Jayasena, B.N.Hearing impairment is a major health problem in children. The incidence of external and middle ear diseases is greater for children with severe to profound hearing impairment. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of external and middle ear pathologies among students with hearing impairment in school settings. A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in two selected schools for children with hearing impairment (6-9, 10-13 and 14-16 years). A total of 195 participants were selected using two stage stratified sampling method. Otoscopy and Tympanometry were performed. Intact tympanic membranes were found in 316 ears (81 %), which was high in the age group of 14 -16 years. 74 (19 %) reported non occluded ear cerumen, occluded ear cerumen, tympanic membrane perforation, bulging tympanic membrane, external ear infection, foreign bodies and discharge. Most common pathology was non occluded ear cerumen in 49 (12.6 %), and high in 10 -13 age group. Only 383 ears were examined by Tympanometry due to occluded ear cerumen, presence of foreign bodies and external ear infection in 7 ears. Type “A” tympanograms were found in 282 ears (74%) and those were normal middle ears. Remaining 101 ears (26%) were pathological middle ears. Type “As” (47 ears; 12%) and type “Ad” (23 ears; 12%) were the most frequent pathological tympanograms, which was high in the 14 -16 group. There is a noticeable prevalence of external and middle ear pathologies among students with hearing impairment. The study findings highlight importance of regular ear examinations and promoting hearing hygiene in children with hearing impairment.Item Audiovisual Segregation in Typically Developing Children(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Jayasena, B.N.; Nanayakkara, S.; Illangasighe, C.; Jacob, J.Learning in typical classrooms with high background noise is often difficult for children, where they may have to lipread the teacher to understand what is being said. In this scenario, it is assumed that a child should possess the ability to separate congruent information from incongruent information in an audiovisual signal. This study was aimed at investigating how well typically developing children can segregate visual information in the presence of auditory distracters, compared to young adults. 12 typically developing primary school children and 11 young adults with normal hearing and vision lipread 120 consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV) nonsense syllable words presented in four conditions: (1) visual-only condition, (2) visual stimuli with a multi-talker babble, (3) visual stimuli with reversed speech sounds of the nonsense syllable words, (4) visual stimuli with non-altered speech sounds of the nonsense syllable words. Mean scores of children in all four conditions were lower than that of the adults, and also a significant difference for all the conditions between the two groups was noted. Results suggest that normal-like audiovisual segregation is difficult for young children because of maturation effects. The study findings can be used to encourage further research in audiovisual segregation. Also, if used constructively, these findings will be helpful in highlighting the importance of creating learner-friendly environments with minimal auditory distractions for children.Item Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices on Noise Induced Hearing Loss among Factory Workers of Two Dairy Product Manufacturing Factories in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Hansajie, S.T.K.; Jayasena, B.N.; Chathurika, L.K.E.The main purpose of this study was to describe dairy product manufacturing factory workers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on Noise Induced Hearing Loss. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 187 factory workers in two factories in the Gamapaha District. A self-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information pertaining to knowledge, attitudes and practices related to Noise Induced Hearing Loss. In the study, it was found out that knowledge on risk factors of NIHL (23.5%) and symptoms of NIHL (38%) was weak. Even though most of the workers (76.5%) perceive noise as a usual phenomenon in the working area, 77% of the workers were willing to seek medical attention if the hearing starts to deteriorate. The overall practice level was not satisfactory. 80.2% of the workers have never used hearing protection devices (HPD) while working. 98.9% of the workers have never undergone a hearing evaluation and 99.5% of the workers have never attended to a hearing conservation program. 95% of the workers reported that the occurrence of hearing deterioration due to high level of noise was worrying. Only 0.5% of the workers reported wearing HPD while working. 80.2% of the workers never used HPD during work. There was a significant association between aspects of work experience and HPD usage (2= 5.193, p= 0.02). In conclusion, it was discovered that there is a need to have a hearing conservation program that stresses on the use of hearing protective devices to prevent the occupational noise induced hearing loss in the particular setting.Item Subjective Measures of Hearing Aid Outcome in Hearing Impaired School Children(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, 2014) Rupasinghe, W.B.S.R.; Chandrasekara, J.M.A.U.; Jayasena, B.N.It is imperative to ensure that hearing aids provide maximum benefit to the wearer, especially in case of children with prelingual hearing impairment. The current study aimed at exploring the status of hearing aid use among children in two schools for the hearing impaired in and around Colombo, and to measure whether the students are benefitted from their hearing aids. 104 hearing aid users in school setting for the hearing impaired in the age range of 6-16 years were tested during the study. Otoscopic examination, Pure tone Audiometry, Aided audiogram, Speech Identification Score (SIS) and Ling’s six sounds test were performed. Subjective measures of hearing aid outcome were measured using the aided performance for SIS and Ling’s six sounds test. The relative benefit was measured using the difference between the aided and unaided scores of respective tests. Only 17.31% (n=18) participants from the whole study population receive at least ≥50% benefit from the hearing aids and only 41.34% (n= 43) participants had demonstrated at least ≥50% aided performance score at SIS. Aided performances were better for those with Pure Tone Average (PTA) <90dBHL compared to participants with PTA ≥90dBHL, indicating that there is an association between the degree of hearing loss in the ear with amplification and the aided performance. Results suggest that the benefit provided by the hearing aids used by students with hearing impairment in Sri Lankan school setting is not satisfactory as the speech identification and sounds detection and identification ability with those hearing aids were very poor even at quiet condition and will be more affected in real life listening conditions with challenging signal-to-noise ratios. Potential factors that may have contributed to the results were identified as unaidable hearing loss, inconsistent use, inadequate aural rehabilitation, improper fitting and programming of hearing aids and less compliance for hearing aid use due to use of sign language.