Outcome of Newborn Hearing Screening Programme delivered by health visitors.
BACKGROUND
The Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) was introduced in England in 2001 to detect congenital hearing loss in the newborn. The screen is either hospital- or community-based.


OBJECTIVE
This is the first large-scale study of community-based NHSP published in the United Kingdom which aims to evaluate the performance of the community-based screen and compare it against national targets for NHSP and the outcome of national pilot projects.


METHODS
Hearing screening data recorded for 10,074 well babies between March 2004 and December 2005 were analysed. Babies who were admitted to the Special Care Baby Unit were excluded. The case notes of all children who failed the initial hearing screen, either unilateral or bilateral, were reviewed retrospectively. Specific performance measures include coverage rate, referral rate and yield. Reasons for failure to complete the screen were identified.


RESULTS
The community programme met all the standards set by the NHSP and the results are comparable with the average of the pilot sites reported in 2004.


CONCLUSIONS
The data demonstrate that a community-based hearing screening programme conducted by Health Visitors meets all the current national standards and could be implemented across wider areas in this country. Its advantages include a low false positive rate and convenience for parents living in rural areas. The babies identified can be diagnosed and rehabilitated in a time which meets national standards.
Basu
S
S
Department of ENT, Gloucester Royal Hospital, Gloucester, UK. basusyama@hotmail.com
Evans
K L
KL
Owen
M
M
Harbottle
T
T
D003152:Community Health Nursing; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004739:England; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000151:congenital / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000379:methods; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies