A novel service delivery model for infant hearing screening in developing countries

Abstract

Newborn hearing screening is the procedure of choice for ensuring optimal outcomes for infants with hearing loss, whether in a developed or developing country. Unfortunately, apart from a small number of recent exceptions, newborn hearing screening has been a practice reserved for the developed world. Despite the prevailing challenges towards implementing hearing screening in developing countries, there are existing structures in these countries that need to be investigated as possible platforms from which programs can be actualized. Immunization clinics, constituting part of a primary healthcare approach characteristic of developing countries, offer one such a platform. A novel service delivery model, based on initial results from a pilot study, was developed for infant hearing screening at immunization clinics in South Africa as an integrated part of primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of healthcare. This type of model is a first step toward ensuring that infants with hearing loss in developing communities are afforded opportunities for optimal development and societal integration through accountable and contextually relevant early hearing detection and intervention services.

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in hearing screening programs—Protocol for developing countries

“…This protocol of delayed hearing screening would maximize the benefits of a hearing screening programs and this can be achieved by combining the hearing screening with the universal immunization program at 3 months of age which is already in place in developing countries as well. Swanepoel et al have described a model for infant hearing screening at immunization clinics in South Africa [15]. On the basis of these facts, we recommend that hearing screening if combined with the immunization at 3 months (in India, the 3rd dose of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus along with oral polio vaccine is administered at 14 weeks) would reduce the chances of missing an infant considerably and would save time, effort and money involved in the process if it is to be done separately.…”

A Summary of the Literature on Global Hearing Impairment

“…Among these, only 7 receive government funding (52). Several reports describe model programs for hearing screening in developing countries (27,56).…”

Newborn hearing screening in a South African private health care hospital

“…A further aspect to consider is that OAE screening protocols will not identify neural hearing losses and therefore compromises its efficiency to identify all infants presenting with hearing loss. It is these trade-offs between the costs and efficiency of the various screening technologies and protocols that require careful consideration within the context of resources available to a health care system [26].…”