Abstract
The administrative office of health and welfare in Tottori Prefecture has played a valuable role in establishing a workable Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) program, by collaborating with obstetricians, ear- nose- throat (ENT) doctors, pediatricians, public health nurses (PHNs), and teachers of the School for the Deaf. The office made a handbook of the NHS program in 2004, and has been collecting reports on NHS yearly from the concerned people since 2005.
In 2008, 4,851 out of 5,527 newborns (87.8%) underwent NHS, and 24 (0.5%) babies were reported to be referred for further evaluation by obstetricians. Twenty-two were reported to have been referred for further examination by ENT doctors. Eight of the children were diagnosed to have normal hearing (false positive rate, 36.4%). Five children with, bilateral hearing loss and 7 with hemilateral hearing loss were detected through the NHS program. Education for the hearing-impaired is being started much earlier than before. Three mothers consulted PHNs about their anxiety and suspicion regarding hearing impairment in their babies.
The NHS program in Tottori has been successfully established, although there may be some dropouts among the referred cases, because the numbers reported by obstetricians and ENT doctors were different. To improve the program, it is important to continue to collect and periodically analyze the reports of NHS.
