After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Describe the prevalence and burden of hearing impairment. 2. Delineate the “gold” and “proxy” gold standards for measuring hearing impairment. 3. Describe the screening tests currently used to detect newborn hearing impairment. 4. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of universal newborn hearing screening. 5. Describe appropriate...

INTRODUCTION Newborn hearing screening has as its main objective the early identification of hearing loss in newborns and infants. In order to guarantee good results, quality indicators for newborn hearing screening programs are used as benchmarks. OBJECTIVE To observe and describe the reality of national newborn hearing screening programs in Brazil, and to evaluate if they can be referred to...

Infants begin to learn language in the earliest months of life. In the absence of early identification and intervention, infants who are deaf or hard-of-hearing experience significant and lasting deficits in language learning, academic achievement, social-emotional development, and quality of life. Evidence is mounting that early identification of infants who are deaf or hard of hearing through...

Universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) was begun in the United States in several geographic locations, the states of Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Colorado in the early 1990s. Since that time, evidence-based research indicates that universal newborn hearing screening results in earlier identification of congenital hearing loss leading to the provision of earlier intervention. Outcome data of ch...

BACKGROUND Although several countries, including Germany, have established newborn hearing screening programmes for early detection and treatment of newborns with hearing impairments, nationwide tracking systems for follow-up of newborns with positive test results until diagnosis of hearing impairment have often not been implemented. However, a recent study on universal newborn hearing screenin...

This statement endorses the implementation of universal newborn hearing screening. In addition, the statement reviews the primary objectives, important components, and recommended screening parameters that characterize an effective universal newborn hearing screening program.

OBJECTIVES To determine: (i) the national status of newborn hearing screening services in the private health care sector of South Africa; (ii) screening approaches implemented; and (iii) challenges to screening implementation. DESIGN A descriptive national survey in the private sector of South Africa was conducted within a quantitative paradigm. METHOD All private health sector institutions...

PURPOSE Previous studies of connexin-related hearing loss have typically reported on mixed age groups or adults. To further address epidemiology and natural history of connexin-related hearing loss, we conducted a longitudinal study in an ethnically diverse cohort of infants and toddlers under 3 years of age. Our study compares infants with and without connexin-related hearing loss to examine d...