Making universal newborn hearing screening a success

Abstract

Following a long period of pilot study, Iaso maternity hospital established a universal newborn hearing screening program based on transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs). The aim of this study is to present the improvement of outcome measures of this program, comparing the results of two groups of newborns screened successively. We analyzed data from two groups of full-term newborns screened at our setting. The first group included all newborns born and screened during the initial 3 years of application of the program and the second group included all newborns born and screened during the next 2 years. TEOAEs were performed during the first days after birth. All newborns who failed the initial test underwent repeat testing with TEOAEs before hospital discharge. Newborns with absence of otoacoustic emissions were referred to follow-up test after 1 month. Results were compared between the two groups. The first group included 22,195 newborns-examined during 3 years and the second group included 25,032 newborns-examined during 2 years, due to reduction of the rate of newborns who missed screening. Refer rate was 3.1% for the first group and 2.1% for the second group. "Missed to follow-up" rate was reduced from 72.2% in the first group to 58.2% in the second group. The rate of newborns who did not undergo screening and the rate of "missed to follow-up" newborns were reduced in time, due to various modifications of the protocol. Universal newborn hearing screening may be, thus, a feasible and cost effective method of identifying congenital hearing loss.