From Neonatal Hearing Screening to Intervention: Results of the Dutch Program for Neonatal Hearing Screening in Well Babies.

Noëlle Uilenburg,Anneke Meuwese-Jongejeugd,Bert Van Zanten,Rosanne Van Der Zee,Catharina Van Der Ploeg

doi:10.3390/ijns4030027

Abstract

In the Netherlands, Youth Health Care services (YHC) have been carrying out neonatal hearing screening (NHS) in newborns since 2006. The aim of the NHS is to identify children with permanent hearing loss, so that intervention can be started before the age of 4 months. Early detection of hearing loss is important, as children who start intervention early have been shown to develop better. This article describes the structure and performance of the NHS carried out by the YHC, the quality of the program, and the timeliness of the start of intervention. Since its implementation, the NHS has been audited annually in order to monitor the program’s quality. Monitoring reports and data from the Dutch Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Child were used in this study. For many years, results have shown the NHS to be a stable screening program of high quality. The participation rate is high, refer percentage low, and the timeliness of the program is continually improving. Although the timeliness of post screening diagnostics and intervention need most improvement as they do not always meet the target times, this has improved over recent years.

Highlights

In the Netherlands, the Youth Health Care services (YHC) have been performing neonatal hearing screening (NHS) in newborns since 2006 [1,2]
Two screening methods are used in the Netherlands: the otoacoustic emission (OAE) method, and the automated auditory brainstem response (A-ABR) method
The aim was 100% participation in diagnostics, as there was a high risk of hearing loss in children who failed the third screening with A-ABR (35–40%)

Summary

Introduction

In the Netherlands, the Youth Health Care services (YHC) have been performing neonatal hearing screening (NHS) in newborns since 2006 [1,2]. The NHS replaced the original Ewing/CAPAS screening tests, which used to be carried out at around the age of 9 months These methods were substituted after mounting scientific evidence began to show that children in whom an intervention for hearing loss was started before the age of 6 months were shown to develop better in various ways, such as by having larger active and passive vocabularies, being able to articulate more clearly, having better auditory function, reaching higher reading levels, having better parent-child interaction, and experiencing fewer socio-emotional problems [3,4,5]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion