Liang Qi, Mason Brendan
Cochlear Limited, China.
Cochlear Implants Int. 2013 Mar;14 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S26-31. doi: 10.1179/1467010013Z.00000000080.
China's population of 1.3 billion represents nearly 20% of the world's population. The current live birth rate in China is 17 million per year, compared with 4.1 million in the USA in 2009. Ministry of Health figures from China identify 115,000 children under the age of 7 years with severe-to-profound deafness and 30,000 babies born each year with hearing impairment.
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) has been implemented in China since 1999. By 2010 UNHS was implemented in 20 of the 32 Chinese provinces. In large cities 95% of babies are screened in hospital-based programs. In more remote areas babies with high-risk factors for hearing loss are referred to screening centers within 1 month of birth and leaflets about identifying deafness are distributed.
Since 1995 more than 10,000 people in China have received cochlear implants (CIs) and 85% of these implant recipients have been children under the age of 7 years. FINANCING OF CIs: China is in the process of developing a national reimbursement scheme for medical care. The first multichannel implant was performed in 1995. In 2005, a private financier provided more than 1500 implants for children under the age of 5 years. In 2009, the Chinese government set up a project to implant 1500 children aged 1-5 years over the next 3 years, with provision of the equivalent of US$65.4 million to pay for the devices, surgery, mapping, and rehabilitation. By 2011, the government had agreed to fund implants for an additional 17,000 children over 4 years.
Schemes have been developed to train surgeons, Audiologists, and those involved in rehabilitation of implanted children in China.
Standardized outcome tests are being developed for CI recipients. There are two large-scale ongoing outcome studies in progress. CI penetration in China is currently less than 5% of potential pediatric candidates, but cochlear implantation is continuing to expand at great speed, and it is hoped that the infrastructure and capacity will continue to grow and develop.
中国13亿人口占世界人口近20%。中国目前的年出生人口为1700万，而美国2009年的年出生人口为410万。中国卫生部的数据显示，有11.5万名7岁以下儿童患有重度至极重度耳聋，每年有3万名听力受损婴儿出生。
自1999年起，中国已实施普遍新生儿听力筛查（UNHS）。到2010年，中国32个省份中有20个实施了UNHS。在大城市，95%的婴儿在医院项目中接受筛查。在更偏远地区，有听力损失高危因素的婴儿在出生后1个月内被转诊至筛查中心，并发放有关识别耳聋的宣传页。
自1995年以来，中国有超过1万人接受了人工耳蜗植入（CI），其中85%的植入接受者为7岁以下儿童。
中国正在制定全国医疗报销计划。1995年完成了首例多渠道植入。2005年，一家私人资助机构为5岁以下儿童提供了1500多例植入。2009年，中国政府启动了一个项目，在未来3年内为1500名1至5岁儿童植入人工耳蜗，提供相当于6540万美元的资金用于支付设备、手术、调试和康复费用。到2011年，政府已同意在4年内为另外1.7万名儿童的植入提供资金。
中国已制定方案培训外科医生、听力学家以及参与植入儿童康复工作的人员。
正在为人工耳蜗植入接受者开发标准化效果测试。目前有两项大规模的效果研究正在进行。中国人工耳蜗植入的普及率目前不到潜在儿科候选者的5%，但人工耳蜗植入正在以极快的速度持续扩大，希望基础设施和能力将继续增长和发展。
