Newborn Hearing Screening Significant, permanent hearing loss at birth is the most common congenital disability of the nearly 4 million babies born annually in the United States. Approximately 4 in 1000 or 16,000 babies will suffer from this condition, which will often go undetected until the child is 2, 3, or even 5 or 6 years of age. The negative impact of this delayed identification on speech, language, congnitive, and social development is astounding. The economic burden imposed on society is often overlooked. These statistics have been known for decades. Yet, it has only been within the past several years that a concerted effort has been underway to implement the goal of screening the hearing of all newborns at birth. No longer is it appropriate to debate teh efficacy of universal newborn hearing screening program. The debate should be over when the program is started, not if. It is estimated that there are over 200 hospitals with universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) programs. Several states have passed legislation mandating UNHS programs and many more have introduced similar legislation. Some hospitals have decided to initiate programs without a mandate. For additional information on universal hearing screening programs, go to NCHAM. What has spurred the recent exponential increase in UNHS programs? It's probably a combination of several factors including: Improved testing technology Easy to use instruments that automatically "interpret" test results Relatively inexpensive cost per test (approximately 10% the cost of identifying children with PKU, hypothyroidism, or sickle cell anemia using metabolic disorder screening programs) Acknowledgement that early identification and intervention enhance speech, language, social and cognitive development Reduced cost to educate children with hearing impairment identified later in life Community Interest The recommendations of the NIH Consensus Conference Recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Audiology, the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing, and the Healthy People 2000

Copyright © 1999 Instrumentation Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.