Implementing Newborn Hearing Screening at the University Pediatric Unit of the North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama

Abstract

Background and rationale:Hearing loss is a multifaceted condition with profound medical, social, and cultural implications (Smith et al., 2005). If hearing loss is not detected in infancy, it can lead to delayed speech and language acquisition, impaired social and emotional development and poor academic performance. Adverse consequences of late detection is minimized when hearing is screened by as early as 1 month of age. However, very few state sector hospitals in Sri Lanka implement hearing screening. Hence it is essential that newborn hearing screening programmes are implemented in a wider scale. Aim: This study aims to initiate a newborn hearing screening programme at the North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama by identifying hearing impairment among all newborn well-babies and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) babies-University Pediatric Unit. Conceptual framework: The Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) recommends a 1-3-6 benchmark on infant hearing. This includes screening hearing of all newborns no later than 1 month of age; those not passing screening to have a diagnostic hearing evaluation no later than 3 months of age; infants with confirmed hearing loss to receive appropriate intervention no later than 6 months of age(JCIH, 2007). Proposed Methodology: Hearing screening will be conducted using Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) for well-babies and a combination of OAE and Auditory brainstem Response (ABR) for babies admitted to the NICU. Those who fail the initial screenwill be rescreened at no later than 1 month of age. Those who fail the rescreen will be referred for detailed audiological evaluation by 3 months of age. The gathered data will be subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. Expected outcomes: The proposed study will provide an initiative step towards including newborn hearing screening as a compulsory component to the hospital’s newborn care services.