Newborn Hearing Screening in a Public Maternity Ward in Curitiba, Brazil: Determining Factors for Not Retesting

Abstract

Introduction Law 12.303/10 requires hearing screening in newborns before hospital discharge to detect possible hearing problems within the first three months after birth. If the newborn fails the test or presents signs of risk for hearing loss, it must undergo a retest and monitoring during the first year of life. In practice, this often does not happen. Objective To identify, in a group of mothers of children with risk factors for hearing loss, the determining reasons for non-compliance with the auditory retest. Method This is a cross-sectional quantitative study. For data collection, we handed a semi-structured questionnaire to 60 mothers of babies at risk for hearing loss who did not attend the hearing retest after hospital discharge. The questionnaire investigated their age, education, marital status, level of knowledge about the hearing screening, and reasons for non-compliance with the retest. We compared and analyzed data using the Chi-square test at a significance level of 0.05%. Results Our study found that 63% of the respondents were unaware of the hearing screening and most did not receive guidance on testing during prenatal care; 30% of participants stated forgetting as the reason for not attending the retest. There was no significant relationship between age, education, and marital status regarding knowledge about the test and the non-compliance with the retest. Conclusion Identified as the most significant determining factors for non-compliance with the newborn hearing screening retest were the surveyed mothers' forgetting the date, and their ignorance as to the importance of retesting.

Hearing Assessment of Neonates at Risk for Hearing Loss at a Hearing Health High Complexity Service: An Electrophysiological Assessment

“…16 A study that analyzed absence for the rescreening of the NHS, held with 60 legal guardians, pointed forgetfulness (30%) and lack of information about the rescreening (20%) as justifications for the absences. 39 Adherence to all steps of the NHS can be achieved when all the hospital medical staff, nurses, social workers and language-speech pathologists are involved in the NHS. 40 In a study in Campinas, São Paulo, absence for the rescreening reached 41.4%, and the reasons were analyzed.…”

Evasion of Newborn Hearing Screening retest: relation with risk factors for hearing impairment

“…A study has observed that such tests are more frequently performed in newborns of white ethnicity, in which cases those responsible for them have health insurance from private institutions, also having higher income. In addition to that, programs, as well as of the impact the RIHL may have on the individual's future auditory health 22 .…”

“…Brazilian studies show high rates of unawareness on the part of the family regarding the importance of the NHS 22,24,25 . In one of them, 81.2% of the parents and/or adults responsible for the child reported having previous knowledge about neither the program nor any of the names and terms used in the field 24 .…”

“…Several studies aimed at identifying the possible causes that might justify the non-attendance at the program's consecutive stages. Among these, the most frequent were: forgetfulness, unawareness of having an appointment scheduled 21 , lack of public transportation, being at work at the time of the scheduled appointment 22 , lack of interest, difficulty in reconciling the appointment with family routine 12 , low attendance at prenatal care, having more than one child, and the lack of a partner 23 .…”

An Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program in Songklanagarind Hospital

“…1,2 Moderate to profound bilateral hearing loss prevalence appears to occur in 1-3 per 1,000 newborns and can increase 10-50 times in high-risk groups. [2][3][4][5][6] In the past, delays in diagnosing hearing loss were common until the 2 nd year of age; however, nowadays, new hearing screening technologies are available, such as otoacoustic emission (OAE) and auditory brainstem evoked response (ABR) tests, which can detect the newborns hearing status at birth.…”