Pre-school hearing screening is necessary to detect childhood hearing loss after the newborn period: a study exploring risk factors, additional disabilities, and referral pathways.

Objective: To explore strategies for detecting childhood hearing loss, aside from newborn hearing screening.

Design: A retrospective review of medical records on the modes of detection of hearing loss, risk factors for late-onset hearing loss, hearing loss degree, aetiology, additional disabilities, and timelines from referral to intervention.

Study Sample: Children, born 2006 to 2015, enrolled for intervention whose hearing loss was detected up to age 7 years but not from newborn hearing screening ( = 326).

Implementation of Newborn Hearing Screening in Albania.

Newborn hearing screening (NHS) was implemented in Albania in four maternity hospitals in 2018 and 2019. Implementation outcome, screening outcome, and screening quality measures were evaluated. Infants were first screened by midwives and nurses before discharge from the maternity hospital and returned for follow-up screening.

Modelling the cost-effectiveness of a newborn hearing screening programme; usability and pitfalls.

Objective: The EUSCREEN project concerns the study of European vision and hearing screening programmes. Part of the project was the development of a cost-effectiveness model to analyse such programmes. We describe the development and usability of an online tool to enable stakeholders to design, analyse or modify a newborn hearing screening (NHS) programme.

Availability of data for cost-effectiveness comparison of child vision and hearing screening programmes.

Objective: For cost-effectiveness comparison of child vision and hearing screening programmes, methods and data should be available. We assessed the current state of data collection and its availability in Europe.

Methods: The EUSCREEN Questionnaire, conducted in 2017-2018, assessed paediatric vision and hearing screening programmes in 45 countries in Europe.

Protocol and programme factors associated with referral and loss to follow-up from newborn hearing screening: a systematic review.

Background: An effective newborn hearing screening programme has low referral rate and low loss to follow-up (LTFU) rate after referral from initial screening. This systematic review identified studies evaluating the effect of protocol and programme factors on these two outcomes, including the screening method used and the infant group.

Methods: Five databases were searched (latest: April 2021).

Assessment of hearing screening programmes across 47 countries or regions III: provision of childhood hearing screening after the newborn period.

Objective: To inventory provision and features of childhood hearing screening after the newborn period (CHS), primarily in Europe.

Design: From each participating country or region, experts provided information through an extensive questionnaire: implementation year, age at screening, test method, pass criteria, screening location, screener profession, and quality indicators: coverage, referral, follow-up and detection rates, supplemented by literature sources.

Study Sample: Forty-two European countries or regions, plus Russia, Malawi, Rwanda, India, and China.

Assessment of hearing screening programmes across 47 countries or regions I: provision of newborn hearing screening.

Objectives: Newborn hearing screening (NHS) varies regarding number and type of tests, location, age, professionals and funding. We compared the provision of existing screening programmes.

Design: A questionnaire containing nine domains: demography, administration, existing screening, coverage, tests, diagnosis, treatment, cost and adverse effects, was presented to hearing screening experts.

Assessment of hearing screening programmes across 47 countries or regions II: coverage, referral, follow-up and detection rates from newborn hearing screening.

Objectives: To assess the performance of newborn hearing screening (NHS) programmes, through selected quality measures and their relationship to protocol design.

Design: NHS coverage, referral, follow-up and detection rates were aggregated. Referral rates were compared to age at screening step 1, number of steps, and test method: OAE or aABR.

Cost-Effectiveness of Neonatal Hearing Screening Programs: A Micro-Simulation Modeling Analysis.

Objectives: Early detection of neonatal hearing impairment moderates the negative effects on speech and language development. Universal neonatal hearing screening protocols vary in tests used, timing of testing and the number of stages of screening. This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of various protocols in the preparation of implementation of neonatal hearing screening in Albania.

Prevalence of permanent neonatal hearing impairment: systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.

To investigate the variance in reported prevalence rates of permanent neonatal hearing impairment (HI) worldwide. A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed on reported prevalence rates of sensorineural and permanent conductive or mixed HI worse than 40 dB in neonates, detected as a result of a screening programme or audiometric study. For meta-analysis, 35 articles were selected, 25 from high-income countries and 10 from middle-income countries according to the world bank classification system.

Maturation of bone-conduction transcranial and forehead attenuation using a measure of sound pressure in the ear canal.

Objective: Although it is understood that bone-conduction (BC) hearing is different between infants and adults, few studies have attempted to explain why these differences exist. The main objective in this study was to better understand how properties of the developing skull contribute to the maturation of BC sensitivity through an indirect measurement of BC attenuation across the skull.

Design: Estimation of transcranial and forehead attenuation of pure-tone BC stimuli was conducted using sound pressure in the ear canal for a transducer placed on the skull ipsi- and contralateral to the probe ear and at the forehead.

Maturation of Mechanical Impedance of the Skin-Covered Skull: Implications for Soft Band Bone-Anchored Hearing Systems Fitted in Infants and Young Children.

Objectives: Little is known about the maturational changes in the mechanical properties of the skull and how they might contribute to infant-adult differences in bone conduction hearing sensitivity. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanical impedance of the skin-covered skull for different skull positions and contact forces for groups of infants, young children, and adults. These findings provide a better understanding of how changes in mechanical impedance might contribute to developmental changes in bone conduction hearing, and might provide insight into how fitting and output verification protocols for bone-anchored hearing systems (BAHS) could be adapted for infants and young children.