[Universal screening program and early intervention (USPEI) in congenital bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in Chile].
Congenital hearing loss is the total or partial inability to hear sounds through the ears. It is the most common disability in newborns in Chile and worldwide, and is a permanent condition. The direct impact on children who are not adequately diagnosed is the alteration in acquisition of language and cognitive skills and a decline in their social and school insertion, jeopardizing their professional and potentially productive life. Universal screening programs for hearing loss are essential for the diagnosis, since 50% of infants with hearing loss have no known risk factor. Screening before one month of age, confirmation before 3 months, and effective intervention before 6 months, allows the development of these children as if they had normal hearing. In Chile there is a selective program of screening for infants aged less than 32 weeks or 1,500 grams, as part of Explicit Health Guarantees, but it covers only 0.9% of newborns per year. Therefore, a large majority of children remain without diagnosis. The aim of this review is to compare the situation in Chile with other countries, raising the need to move towards a universal neonatal hearing loss screening program, and propose necessary conditions in terms of justification and implementation of a universal screening public policy.
Nicolás
N
Albertz
Felipe
F
Cardemil
Maritza
M
Rahal
Francisca
F
Mansilla
Rodrigo
R
Cárdenas
Pedro
P
Zitko
D002675:Child, Preschool; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D018479:Early Intervention, Educational; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000151:congenital / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000151:congenital / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015997:Neonatal Screening; D016730:Program Development / Q000191:economics