Referral Rates and Costs of Our Modified Two-Step Newborn Hearing Screening Program at a Japanese Perinatal Center

Abstract

Background: We examined the referral rates and costs of our modified two-step newborn hearing screening program for “low-risk” infants at our hospital from 2004 to 2013.

Methods: In our hospital, low-risk newborns were screened with an otoacoustic emissions (OAE) sensor on days 2 - 4 postpartum. Infants who failed the OAE were examined with OAE again 1 - 5 days after the first screening. Infants who failed the second OAE were screened with the third OAE at 1 month after delivery. Infants who failed the third OAE were examined with auditory brainstem response at 1 - 2 weeks after the third OAE.

Results: Twenty-eight of 19,199 cases (0.15%) had unilateral or bilateral REFER, and 19 cases (0.10%) were diagnosed as hearing loss (three cases were missing). Thus, the false positive rate in our programs was 28%. During the study period, the total cost for each program was calculated to be JP 526.

Conclusions: Our modified two-step newborn hearing screening program for low-risk infants seemed to be beneficial concerning their referral rates and costs.




Int J Clin Pediatr. 2014;3(2):35-39
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/ijcp155w