Comparison of four hearing screening protocols

This is the second in a series of three papers concerned with the early identification of hearing loss. In the first paper (Turner, 1991), a simple model that permits the calculation of the performance and cost of early identification protocols is presented. In this paper, the model is used to compare four protocols that differ only in their hearing screening strategies. The high-risk register and auditory brainstem response screening are used to construct the four screening protocols. The cost and performance of the four early identification protocols are calculated using base model parameters derived from the clinical literature. The protocols are evaluated separately for the intensive care nursery and the well-baby nursery.