Neonatal Hearing Screening Program in a public health system

NEONATAL HEARING SCREENING PROGRAM IN A PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM IN PARAÍBA

Abstract

Purpose: to analyze the results of neonatal hearing screening and the quality indices proposed by the Joint Committee of Infant Hearing and Guidelines for Neonatal Hearing Screening of the Ministry of Health of Brazil in a Neonatal Hearing Screening Program. Methods: The study is retrospective, cross-sectional and descriptive, with a survey of the database of newborns that underwent neonatal hearing screening, including testing and/or retest, in the period from 2016 to 2018. Descriptive and statistical analysis using the paired t test and binary logistic regression. Results: Of the newborns screened, a small portion presented some type of risk for hearing impairment, almost the entire sample passed the screening, where only five failed in at least one ear in the retest. In the statistical analysis, it was observed that the presence of congenital infection is 4.5 times more likely for the child to fail in the Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions procedure. Conclusion: The Neonatal Hearing Screening Program does not comply with some recommended quality criteria. The lack of a unified computerized data bank makes it difficult to access the recording of the results of audiological procedures and, as a consequence, there are difficulties in knowing the real auditory profile of children born in the municipality.