Neonatal hearing screening programs: quality indicators and access to health services

Abstract

Objectives: to verify the quality indicators of neonatal hearing screening programs, identify the most prevalent risk factors for hearing loss and analyze access to the Hearing Health Care Network. Methods: cross-sectional study using secondary data. The population are children born in public maternity hospitals from 2015 to 2019. Data collection was carried out in the database of programs and hearing health service. The absolute and relative frequencies of all variables collected and the median, the interquartile range and the Mann-Whitney test were calculated to analyze the access. Results: universality increased during the study period, but was not reached (71.9%; CI95%=70.4-73.3) and the referral rate for auditory diagnosis was within the recommended range (0.9%; CI95%=0.8-0.9). The most prevalent risk factors were congenital infections and heredity. There was an evasion of children to the hearing health service of 85.1% and the type of referral interfered with the age of the child at access. Eight children with hearing loss were diagnosed, in which seven had access to therapeutic interventions. Conclusions: hearing screening was not universal. Access to the Hearing Health Care Network presents high evasion and interventions were offered to children with hearing loss.

Audiologists’ perspective on newborn hearing screening in a developing nation: a questionnaire-based survey

“…From the results of the present study, it can be well understood that in a developing country like India, the challenges that are faced by audiologists at grassroots levels obstruct the implication of an impeccable newborn hearing screening program with a uniform protocol. Our findings in the study stated by the audiologists match with similar challenges reported by several researchers in literature which addresses the problems that a developing country faces while trying to implement and regulate a screening program such as lack of funding, lack of awareness, lack of manpower, low support of inter-disciplinary teams, poor data management systems resulting in loss of follow-up data which are in accordance to the major challenges that an audiologist face [11][12][13].…”

The prevalence of risk for hearing impairment in newborns with congenital syphilis in a newborn hearing screening program (NHS)

“…In Brazil, over the past 5 years, a steady increase in the number of cases of syphilis in pregnant women, congenital syphilis, and acquired syphilis has been observed ( 9 ). This increase is reflected in NHSP programs that present congenital syphilis as one of the most prevalent RIHLs in neonates ( 17 – 19 ). Another factor contributing to congenital syphilis being the most prevalent among congenital infections may be due to the public policy in Brazil that, since 2005 ( 20 ), has made notification of syphilis compulsory in pregnant women.…”

Prevalência de anquiloglossia em bebês triados em um serviço ambulatorial público de fonoaudiologia na cidade de Salvador – Bahia

“…As triagens neonatais são uma forma de ação preventiva para identificação de possíveis patologias, para bebês assintomáticos, por meio de testes, com o objetivo de encaminhá-los o mais antecipadamente possível para o diagnóstico e tratamento precoce com diminuição ou eliminação das sequelas [1][2][3][4] .…”