title: Questionnaire for monitoring auditory and language development in the first year.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate a monitoring questionnaire about hearing and language development applied by community health agents in the first year of life.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy six community health agents, previously trained on infant hearing health, administered a questionnaire to the families of 304 children with ages from 0 to 1 year. The questionnaire contains questions regarding hearing and language development and, for all age groups, the question "Does your child hear well?" was presented. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by analyzing false positive and false negative rates of the identified children. A double-blind study was conducted so that all children assessed by the questionnaire were submitted to hearing evaluation performed by audiologists.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four children (1.32%) were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss (two unilateral), and 69 (22.7%) with conductive hearing loss. The monitoring questionnaire showed specificity of 96% and sensitivity of 67%, with a false-negative rate of 33% for not identifying the unilateral hearing loss, and a false-positive rate of 4%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The questionnaire used has shown to be feasible and relevant to actions of the community health agents of the Family Health Strategy program, with high specificity and moderate sensitivity. The use of the validated instrument should be considered to complement Newborn Hearing Screening Programs, in order to identify late onset or acquired hearing loss.
authors.forename: Kátia de Freitas
authors.initials: Kde F
authors.lastname: Alvarenga
authors.forename: Eliene Silva
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Araújo
authors.forename: Tatiana Mendes de
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Maria Angelina Nardi
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: Maria Cecília
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Bevilacqua
mesh_terms: D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005192:Family Health; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007804:Language Development; D009313:National Health Programs; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires