title: Performance of neonatal and infant hearing screens: sensitivity and specificity.
abstract: The terms 'sensitivity' and 'specificity' are defined and some of the factors that determine their values are discussed in the context of screening for permanent childhood hearing loss. There is a need to distinguish between the values observed in 'simple experiments' and those that may be obtained under more realistic 'field' conditions. It is not feasible to give a meta-analytic overview of published data because of the variety of methods and objectives used in those studies published in the literature. However, a qualitative synthesis of the data is possible. This suggests that most proposed neonatal hearing screening tests, when implemented in accordance with a programme of quality assurance, can be reasonably accurate at a modest cost. However, the optimal combination of tests and test parameters for given populations has not yet been fully researched. The infant distraction test screen has a lower sensitivity than neonatal hearing screening tests, particularly for moderate impairments, accompanied by a fairly low specificity.
authors: MRC Institute of Hearing Research, University Park, Nottingham, UK. adrian@ihr.mrc.ac.uk
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Davis
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Bamford
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Stevens
mesh_terms: D002662:Child Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity