An Infant-Hearing-Screening Test Using Auditory Eye Opening Response at Onset of Sleep

Abstract

Auditory eye opening response at onset of sleep (AEOR: Suzuki & Notoya, 1980) is an acousticpalpebral reflex in which subject's eyelids open when weak sound stimuli are presented immediately after his or her eyelids are closing before fall to sleep.
The effectiveness of a hearing-screening program using AEOR for the first step was investigated. Subjects were 42, 000 about 14, 000 each year, infants younger than 12 months of age during 1981-1983 period in Ishikawa Prefecture.
In the first step, AEOR was checked by their mothers at home using the test stimulus of repeated sounds produced by tongue clicking of 50-55dB (A), but 257 (0.6%) of 42, 000 infants failed to respond. In the second step, BOA were performed at health care centers for the infants who failed at first step, and 50 (0.12%) were considered possibly hearing-impaired. In the last step, a battery of standard audiometric tests were performed at the University Hospitals to those referred from the health care centers, and 14 (0.03%, Mean 4.6 months) infants were identified as definitely hearing-imparied (mild to profound).
The screening ratio was rather effective compared with those reported in other studies.