Introducing universal newborn hearing screening in Denmark: Preliminary results from the city of Copenhagen

Abstract

In 2004 funding was made available by the government to introduce universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) in Denmark. The funding was, however, limited to a two-year project with the results of the screening to be analysed at the end of the project period. This study presents the results from two Copenhagen hospitals after twelve months of screening the Hvidovre and Frederiksberg Hospitals. Before the UNHS started The Danish National Board of Health published guidelines for the screening. There were three main goals to be met: The detection of permanent hearing impairment in excess of 30dB in one or both ears.The screening process to be finished by the age of 30days (or within 30days after discharge from hospital for infants from the neonatal intensive care units).The coverage of the screening to be better than 80% of all newborns in the first year and 90% in the second year of the project period.The UNHS started in February 2005 and the coverage during the first year was 98.5% of all children born at ...