BMJ 2001;323:525-526 ( 8 September )

Editorials

Measuring the prevalence of permanent childhood hearing impairment

The introduction of screening makes this important and timely

Papers p 536

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In June 2000 Britain's health minister announced the introduction of universal neonatal hearing screening into the United Kingdom with initial pilot programmes at 20 sites. 1 2 Such universal neonatal screening is now also mandated in 35 of the 50 states of the United States, with legislation in other states pending.3 There is only one existing controlled trial of this approach,4 the remaining studies having compared their results with historical data. Although initial results are promising, they are primarily from hospital centres, often with a strong research interest, with relatively short follow up. Whether these results can be sustained when screening is introduced across whole communities, and when programmes are subjected to long term follow up, remains to be determined.

Given this setting, it is particularly important that new, universal screening programmes are evaluated adequately. One way to achieve this in the short term is to compare the observed prevalence of targeted hearing impairments being detected . . . [Full text of this article]
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Relevant Article

Prevalence of permanent childhood hearing impairment in the United Kingdom and implications for universal neonatal hearing screening: questionnaire based ascertainment study • Commentary: Universal newborn hearing screening: implications for coordinating and developing services for deaf and hearing impaired children
Heather M Fortnum, A Quentin Summerfield, David H Marshall, Adrian C Davis, John M Bamford, Adrian Davis, Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, and Sally Hind
BMJ 2001 323: 536. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Kennedy, C, McCann, D (2004). Universal neonatal hearing screening moving from evidence to practice. Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 89: F378-F383 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Amis, S., Byrne, D., Bailey, H. D, Bower, C., Gifkins, K., Coates, H. L (2002). Prevalence of permanent childhood hearing impairment. BMJ 324: 172-172 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Impaired Hearing
Paula Molyneux
bmj.com, 11 Sep 2001 [Full text]
The need for population-based prevalence data on permanent childhood hearing impairment
Helen Bailey
bmj.com, 22 Sep 2001 [Full text]
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