Neonatal otoacoustic emission screening and sudden infant death syndrome.
OBJECTIVE
Exploratory research findings have suggested that otoacoustic emission (OAE) recordings may be predictive for infants at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The present study aimed to investigate whether an actual SIDS prevalence rate was comparable to OAE-determined rates for "at risk" status.


METHODS
Previously collected OAE results from 521 infants in Hong Kong were used for analyses and OAE-determined "at risk" rate compared to the prevalence rate for SIDS in Hong Kong infants.


RESULTS
Results indicated that the OAE-determined rates were very much greater than the actual prevalence of SIDS in Hong Kong.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of OAE screening to identify infants at risk for SIDS is therefore not advisable, using present criteria, as false alarm rates would be very high and this may cause unnecessary parental anxiety and a considerable additional burden to the health care system.
Centre for Communication Disorders, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Rita S Y
RS
Chan
Bradley
B
McPherson
Vicky W
VW
Zhang
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013398:Sudden Infant Death / Q000453:epidemiology*