The aim of present study is to evaluate and compare speech intelligibility in hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aid (HA) users and children with normal hearing (NH). The sample consisted of 45 Persian-speaking children aged 3 to 5-years-old. They were divided into three groups, and each group had 15, children, children with CI and children using hearing aids in Hamadan. Participants was evaluated by the test of speech intelligibility level. Results of ANOVA on speech intelligibility test showed that NH children had significantly better reading performance than hearing impaired children with CI and HA. Post-hoc analysis, using Scheffe test, indicated that the mean score of speech intelligibility of normal children was higher than the HA and CI groups; but the difference was not significant between mean of speech intelligibility in children with hearing loss that use cochlear implant and those using HA. It is clear that even with remarkabkle advances in HA technology, many hearing impaired children continue to find speech production a challenging problem. Given that speech intelligibility is a key element in proper communication and social interaction, consequently, educational and rehabilitation programs are essential to improve speech intelligibility of children with hearing loss.
Child* ; Cochlear Implants* ; Hearing Aids* ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations ; Rehabilitation ; Speech Intelligibility*

OBJECTIVES: To compare narrative skills between fourth and fifth grades of Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments and typical hearing students of the same grade and also to evaluate the effects of group, sex, hearing age, and educational grade of the students on their spoken/written narrative performance. METHODS: The subjects were 174 students aged 10–13 years, 54 of whom wore cochlear implants, 60 suffered from moderate to severe hearing losses and wore hearing aids, with the remaining 60 students being typical hearing in terms of the sense of hearing. The micro- and macrostructure components of spoken and written narrative were elicited from a pictorial story (The Playful Little Elephant) and then scored by raters. RESULTS: Compared to the typical hearing, the students with hearing impairments had significantly lower scores in all of the microstructure components of narratives. However, the findings showed no significant difference among different groups in macrostructure components of narratives. It was also revealed that the students had equal performance in spoken and written narrative. Finally, factor analysis manifested that group, sex, hearing age, and educational level of children might alter the outcome measures in various interactions. CONCLUSION: Although cochlear implantation was more effective than hearing aid on spoken and written narrative skills, the Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments were seen to need additional trainings on microstructure components of spoken/written narrative.
Child ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants* ; Hearing Aids* ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Narration ; Outcome Assessment (Health Care)

Menopause is one the most crucial stages in a female’s life. Identifying the education gaps regarding menopause is important, thus this study aims to explain the health-related needs of females during menopause. Scopus, PubMed, Scientific Information Database, and Web of Science databases were searched for the available observational (cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional), systematic review, meta-analysis, and clinical trial studies (2007–2021) using keywords, such as ‘Educational Needs Assessment,’ ‘Assessment of Healthcare Needs,’ ‘menopause,’ ‘climacteric,’ ‘premenopause,’ and ‘postmenopause.’ A total of 180 out of 5,705 papers were evaluated after considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The educational needs of females during menopause in the reviewed studies include osteoporosis, oral and dental problems, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, lung diseases, infectious diseases, musculoskeletal problems, urinary problems, breast cancer, defecation problems, genital disorders, special diseases such as eye diseases and hypothyroidism and hormone therapy, mental disorders, cognitive function, sleep disorders, sexual disorders, physical activity, supplement consumption, public health issues, health education, fall, and nutrition. The study results reveal that females during postmenopause require training, counseling, and support in all aspects to get through this challenging time, and providing these services, infrastructure, appropriate policy, and the use and support of the medical team’s capacity are all required.