The relationship between the result of diagnosis after Neonatal Hearing Screening and the achievement of the Hearing Development Checklist

Abstract

Neonatal Hearing Screening (NHS) was started for half of the newborn babies in Akita Prefecture in November 2001, the other half undergoing conventional hearing checkups with the Hearing Development Checklist used by Pediatricians and Health Nurses. In Nakadohri Hospitial, 35 babies were diagnosed to have both ABR and a list (high or low) score by three months of age. Twenty-one cases had normal hearing and almost full scores. Two cases of severe hearing loss had very low scores. One case with moderate hearing loss also had a very low score, whereas another had a very high score; this later case was proved to have high-frenquency hearing loss. A girl with 80dB in the right ear and 50dB in the left ear scored alomost perfectly by the list (rarely seen). A girl with mild loss on the list scored perfectly. The rest of the cases were dropouts or little information could be obtained due to deafness in the family. The conclusions are that even if a baby scores just a few points on the list, the family should be advised to get his/her hearing checked further. The difficulities in checking babies for hearing impairments, including high-frequency loss and mild to severe hearing loss, should be noted. From the point of view of identificaton of neonatal hearing loss, NHS should be preformed on all babies. NHS is better superior to the conventional system for evaluating hearing loss in infants.