en Pediatric Pediatric Original Research Original Research <p> <strong>Abstract </strong></p><p> <strong>Background:</strong> Low birth weight neonates are confronted with some problems after </p><p> birth, they should be followed up and evaluated at different ages of life.The aim of this study was to determine the impact of birth weight on the risk of sensorineural hearing impairment on children. </p><p> <strong>Method:</strong> This cross sectional and retrospective study determined the prevalence </p><p> of hearing problems in low birth weight and normal birth weight school age children. </p><p> The sample was consisted of 2400 children who referred to special educational organization for hearing screening before entrance to school in Mashhad - Iran between </p><p> June 2005 and June 2006. Hearing problems were checked in all groups. Case definition was based on the mean sensorineural hearing loss of more than 35 decibel (dB) hearing level (HL) and in the better-hearing ear averaged over the pure-tone hearing thresholds at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Htz. The results were then compared the low birth weight and normal birth weight children. </p><p> <strong>Result:</strong> This study showed that prevalence of hearing problems was 1.4%. The </p><p> prevalence of hearing impairment in low birth weight (LBW) was 2.1% and 1.3% in </p><p> normal birth weight (NBW). There wasn't significant difference in hearing impairment </p><p> between two groups (p=0.255). </p><p> <strong>Conclussion:</strong> In this study there was no significant difference between low birth </p><p> weight and normal birth weight children in hearing impairment although other studies </p><p> indicated that the risks of hearing impairment increase with the LBW and low </p><p> gestational age neonates. More investigation is needed for detecting the subtle hearing </p><p> problems in children.</p><p>  </p> Hearing impairment, low birth weight, normal birth weight, school age children 70 74 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-63&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Ashraf Mohammadzadeh mohamadzadeha@mums.ac.ir 20031947532846001797 20031947532846001797 Yes Neonatal Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Ne'matollah Mokhtari 20031947532846001798 20031947532846001798 No ENT Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Ghaem Hospital.Iran. Ahmadshah Farhat 20031947532846001799 20031947532846001799 No Neonatal Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Science, NICU of Emamreza Hospital.Iran. Ra'na Amiri 20031947532846001800 20031947532846001800 No Neonatal research center, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Nursing and Midwifery Faculty Habibollah Esmaeli 20031947532846001801 20031947532846001801 No Neonatal Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Science, Community Medicine and Public