Follow-up after newborn hearing screening in Osaka prefecture in last five years

Abstract

  The purpose of this study was to determine the number of newborns diagnosed with hearing loss at maternity hospitals by the Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) Program in Osaka Prefecture, and the number of newborn babies who were introduced to the ENT Departments of 36 hospitals especially selected for this program in Osaka Prefecture from 2002–2006.
  We evaluated 10 items, of which 3 are discussed in this paper. The total number of babies seen in the referral hospitals increased from 134 cases in 2002 to 372 in 2006. Detection of hearing loss by the diagnostic examination clearly increased from 63 (47.0%) in 2002 to 194 (61.0%) in 2006, and 29 babies with profound hearing loss were identified among the 372 babies who were examined by the diagnostic hearing test in 2006. A comparison of the results of the screening test and that of the diagnostic hearing test shows a progressive increase in the agreement rate from 35.4% in 2002 to 63.5% in 2006. The above findings indicate that from the viewpoint of the otolaryngologist, the reliability of the Newborn Hearing Screening Program in Osaka Prefecture has improved.