Overview of audiology in Brazil: state of the art.

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the field of clinical and rehabilitative audiology for children and adults in Brazil, while simultaneously offering some data and results from several different research studies within the country. The theme will address seven main topics: (1) the status of services and assistance for the hearing impaired; (2) the results of five different institutional research studies showing the main causes of hearing impairment in children in the city of Săo Paulo; (3) a review of subjective and objective methods for early diagnosis and audiological habilitation of children, including parent counseling, hearing aids, and cochlear implants; (4) a discussion of hearing conservation in different settings; (5) a brief consideration of audiological rehabilitation for hearing-impaired elderly adults in the country; (6) the main results of the First and Second Brazilian National Campaigns of Deafness Prevention; and (7) conclusions.