title: Health Vulnerability Index and newborn hearing screening: urban inequality.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the intra-urban differentials related to the outcome of the Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) of children living in Belo Horizonte tested in a reference service using the Health Vulnerability Index (HVI).
  
  
  METHODS
  cross-sectional study with children living in Belo Horizonte evaluated by a Newborn Hearing Screening Reference Service (NHSRS) between 2010 and 2011. The HVI of the census tract of each child was obtained by the georeferencing of their respective addresses. Multivariate analysis was conducted using the decision tree technique, considering a statistical model for each response. A thematic map of points representing the geographic distribution of the children evaluated by the NHS program was also developed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The NHS failure rate for children living in areas with very high HVI, or without HVI data, was 1.5 times higher than that for children living in other census tracts. For children living in areas of low, medium, and high HVI, who underwent NHS after 30 days of life, the NHS failure rate was 2.1 times higher in children that presented Risk Indicator for Hearing Loss (RIHL) (17.2%) than in those who did not (8.1%). Uneven distribution was observed between areas for children that underwent the NHS and those who failed it.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant intra-urban differentials were found in Belo Horizonte, indicating correlation between health vulnerability and NHS outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Secretaria de Estado de Saúde de Minas Gerais - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Gabriela Cintra
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Januário
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Claudia Regina Lindgren
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Alves
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Stela Maris Aguiar
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lemos
authors.affiliation: Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de Belo Horizonte - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Cristina de Mattos
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.affiliation: Secretaria de Estado de Saúde de Minas Gerais - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Ramon Costa
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG - Belo Horizonte (MG), Brasil.
authors.forename: Amélia Augusta de Lima
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Friche
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000379:methods; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population