Newborn screenings may miss hearing loss in some

Newborn hearing screenings don't detect all children at risk for hearing loss.

Spotting deafness or hearing loss early is important in helping kids develop speech and language skills. When universal newborn hearing screening programs (UNHS) were initially conceived, it was presumed that most hearing-impaired children, especially those without risk factors for progressive hearing loss, would fail the objective screening performed during the newborn period, thus making early diagnosis and intervention possible on a widespread basis.

Researchers examined data from 391 children who received cochlear implants in America from 1991 to 2008, and found that nearly one-third of children who received the implants had passed newborn screening tests but were later diagnosed with hearing loss. Cochlear implants are small electronic devices that are surgically implanted and stimulate the auditory nerve to enable the deaf or severely hard-of-hearing to process sound.

They also studied 264 children born before UNHS became mandatory in Illinois, USA, in 2003 and 127 children born after screening became mandatory. Children born after the UNHS law took effect were younger when they were diagnosed with hearing loss than children born before the mandate. Children born post-mandate were also younger when they were diagnosed with severe to profound hearing loss and younger when they received cochlear implants compared to those born prior to passage of the law.

The findings suggest that although universal newborn hearing screening programs appear to identify children with hearing loss at a younger age, nearly one-third of paediatric cochlear implant recipients pass newborn screening only to be diagnosed later in infancy or early childhood. Some of the children who passed the newborn screening test may have had delayed onset hearing loss, which limits the ability to achieve early diagnosis and implantation of a significant number of deaf children, the researchers concluded.