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Role of the "rooming-in" on efficacy of universal neonatal hearing screening programmes
D L Grasso1, S Hatzopulos, P Cossu
1ENT Department, IRCCS "Burlo - Garofolo" Children's Hospital, Trieste, Italy. mimmograsso@hotmail.com
Insights
Rooming-in practices in maternity wards may negatively impact universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) effectiveness. Early identification of sensorineural hearing loss in infants is crucial for successful intervention.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Audiology
- Neonatal Care
Background:
- Sensorineural hearing loss is a common congenital abnormality in newborns, affecting 1-2 per 1000 births.
- Early identification and intervention are critical for successful hearing loss rehabilitation in infants.
- Otoacoustic Emission testing is a key tool for universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS).
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the impact of rooming-in practices on the performance of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) programs.
- To compare UNHS outcomes between maternity wards with different breastfeeding and rooming-in protocols.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of UNHS data from two maternity wards with differing breastfeeding protocols.
- Evaluation of benchmark achievement rates in UNHS based on the adoption of rooming-in.
Main Results:
- Maternity wards utilizing rooming-in showed a lower performance in achieving UNHS benchmarks (60% of newborns tested).
- Wider adoption of rooming-in may potentially decrease the efficacy of UNHS programs.
- Dispersion of patients in rooming-in settings could hinder early detection of hearing loss.
Conclusions:
- Current data suggest a negative impact of rooming-in on UNHS program effectiveness.
- Further research is needed to fully evaluate the consequences of rooming-in on neonatal hearing screening.
- Potential challenges in early hearing loss detection due to rooming-in warrant attention in neonatal care protocols.
Abstract:
Sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most common congenital abnormalities in infants and it affects approximately one to two neonates in every 1000 births. Early identification of hearing loss in the newborn is the first step for a successful rehabilitation programme. The introduction of Otoacoustic Emission responses as a useful tool in hearing screening programmes, allowed the identification of hearing loss in the well-baby nursery and in targeted populations of the neonatal intensive care unit. Recently, a new concept of breastfeeding during hospitalization after birth has been developed. Indeed, the so-called "rooming-in" allows a mother to stay with her child in the same room, located in the nursery. This new trend has been developed to avoid any psychological adverse consequences of birth on the child-mother relationship. To enhance how "rooming-in" could affect the Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) programmes, an analysis has been made of the data coming from two maternity wards using different breastfeeding protocols. Data obtained demonstrate a worse performance on obtaining essential benchmark in the UNHS in the maternity ward where rooming-in is adopted (60% of newborns tested). UNHS programme efficacy could be affected by the wider adoption of the "rooming-in" regimen in the maternity wards and early detection of hearing loss revealed by UNHS could be vanished by dispersion of patients. In fact, more data are necessary to evaluate the impact of rooming, even though our data show a worsening in the UNHS results.
