Parent educational materials regarding the newborn hearing screening process.

Purpose: Newborn hearing screening (NHS) procedures and implementation vary from state to state in the US. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content and nature of information provided to parents about their infant's NHS across states to answer two questions: 1) what information is included in each state's parent information brochure? and 2) do the brochures include educational information requested by parents that may help reduce parental anxiety, improve satisfaction, and decrease the potential for misunderstandings?

Method: Each state's parent brochures and educational resources provided to parents were accessed via the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM) website, categorized, and reviewed for content.

Results: Results indicate that the information provided to parents varies considerably across states and many brochures do not contain important information that is desired by parents.

Conclusions: NHS procedures may be improved by providing standardized information regarding the process to parents in all states.