Improvements are needed in screening programs for hearing loss in children

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Delays in language development can have life-affecting consequences, which is why it is important that infants and children with hearing impairments receive the correct interventions as soon as possible, he says. Alison McKeewho recently completed his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Inger Uhlén at Department of Clinical Sciences, Intervention and TechnologyKarolinska Institutet.

lack of data collection

The thesis evaluated, among other things, how well the audiology screening programs performed and the strategies used to improve their results.

– Among other things, we conducted an international survey on the status of screening programs in both high and middle income countries in Europe, as part of a large multicentre project. showed that most high-income countries perform hearing screening for all newborns, while only a few middle-income countries have similar programmes. We’ve also found that most countries lack the available data showing the results of screening programmes, says Alison Mackie.

Important to improve the follow-up rate

The thesis also shows that missing follow-up is an area of ​​particular interest.

In many programs around the world, a high percentage of infants whose first screening fails do not return for a follow-up evaluation. This may be due to a number of factors, but we can see, for example, that the experience and knowledge of employees involved in the screening program had an impact on how well this worked, says Allison Mackie.

The success criteria used for screening are important determinants of program sensitivity. The tighter criteria will result in more children with hearing loss being detected in the screening programme.

However, the lack of data in many screening programs makes it difficult to assess their quality. If policy makers want to address issues such as loss of follow-up, they must first know the current situation. Therefore, the first step to improving a screening program is to establish a system of processes to collect data and monitor and evaluate results regularly, says Allison Mackie.

Allison Mackie defends her doctoral thesis on October 14.

PhD thesis

“Perspectives on screening strategies for early detection of childhood hearing lossAlison Mackey, 2022, ISBN: 978-91-8016-729-1