Newborn hearing screening effective - Hearing Awareness Week (15 - 21 August)

The study was conducted by a team from the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research -

Ms Helen Bailey, Coordinator of the Western Australian Newborn Hearing Screening Programme, and Dr Carol Bower, the Head of Epidemiology, and a team from the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children - Mr Jay Krishnaswamy, Head of the Audiology Department, and Dr Harvey Coates, Senior Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon.

The pilot program to screen newborn babies for congenital bilateral permanent hearing loss took place in the five largest maternity hospitals in Perth.

Automated screening devices were used to check evoked otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem responses on more than 12,700 newborn babies.

Ninety-nine per cent of the screened babies received a pass response in both ears at either the initial or follow-up screen. Twenty-three babies who did not obtain a 'pass' in either ear at follow-up were referred for audiological assessment. Nine babies were found to have permanent bilateral hearing loss.

"We found that eight of the nine babies with bilateral hearing loss had a risk factor for hearing loss which is a higher proportion than others have reported," Ms Bailey said

Ms Bailey said their program has been successful in screening a high percentage of eligible babies, with a low referral rate. However, the prevalence of bilateral hearing loss detected is at the lower end of what would be expected. For this reason, the program is currently being evaluated and data about permanent hearing loss in Western Australian children obtained before extending the program to smaller hospitals.

Ms Bailey said prompt diagnosis of hearing loss was important as studies have shown that interventions to boost language skills were most effective when started early. The critical age by which intervention should commence may be as young as six months.

In an editorial in the same issue of the MJA, Dr Melissa Wake, Director of Research & Public Health at the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital in Victoria said, "Currently, we are not serving well the hundreds of children born each year with moderate or greater hearing impairment in Australia, because of our patchy and very incomplete ascertainment of hearing impairment in the first year of life.

"National benchmarks and a minimum database should be established, and we should start carefully and systematically examining outcomes for hearing-impaired babies born now against which to compare gains over the coming years," Dr Wake said.

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

CONTACT: (Research) Liz Chester (0409) 988 530

Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, W.A.

(Editorial) Dr Melissa Wake (03) 9345 5937 (B/H); (0417) 506400

Sarah Crichton, AMA (0419) 440 076