Use of Socioeconomic Demographic Data in Studies on Pediatric Unilateral Hearing Loss: A Scoping Review

Objectives: Social determinants of health (SDOH) (healthcare access and quality, education access and quality, socioeconomic status, social and cultural context, neighborhood and built environment) (Healthy People 2030) have been shown to impact a wide range of health-related outcomes and access to care. Given the medical and nonmedical costs associated with children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL), the varied insurance coverage for hearing healthcare services, and the differences in hearing aid utilization rates between children of different sociodemographic classes, the sociodemographic information of children with UHL enrolled in research studies should be collected to ensure the generalizability of hearing healthcare interventions. Therefore, the objective of this scoping review is to assess the reporting of SDOH data for participants in studies of pediatric UHL and its comparison to population trends. Design: Two searches of published literature were conducted by a qualified medical librarian. Two reviewers then evaluated all candidate articles. Study inclusion parameters were from 2010 to present, peer-reviewed studies with prospective study design, and participant population including children (age 0 to 18 years old) with UHL. Results: Two literature searches using PubMed Medline and Embase found 442 and 3058 studies each for review. After abstract and paper review, 87 studies were included in final qualitative review, with 22 of these studies reporting race distribution of participants, 15 reporting insurance status or family income, and 12 reporting the maternal education level. Conclusions: Sociodemographic data are not commonly reported in research studies of children with UHL. In reported samples, research participants are more likely to have private insurance and higher family income compared with overall population distribution. These demographic biases may affect the generalizability of study results to all children with UHL. Further evaluation is warranted to evaluate whether participant recruitment affects outcomes that reflect the overall population.