Anxiety of the mothers with referred baby during Universal Newborn Hearing Screening

To investigate the anxiety among mothers whom their babies have failed test results in the first stage of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program.

A cross-sectional study was carried out on mothers whom their baby have positive test results in the first stage of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program. Face to face interview was conducted to obtain data on sociodemographic profiles, knowledge about hearing loss and past medical history. Symptoms experienced by the mothers due to positive hearing test results and level of anxiety were measured by using the Malay translation Beck Anxiety Inventory questionnaire. These mothers were then given an appointment to come for the second screening six weeks after the first screening. The same questionnaire was given to them before the start of the second screening. SPSS version 11.5 was used for data entry and analysis. Wilcoxon signed Rank Test was used to compare the level of anxiety between the first and second screening.

From a total of 78 mothers who were participated during the first screening, 50 of them have completed the study at the second screening (response rate=64%). Fifty-two percent of them knew about the hearing screening before hand. Ninety-six percent of the mothers became alert about their child response towards sounds after they knew that their child had failed the first hearing screening. During the first screening, 74% of the mothers felt mild anxiety which was decreased to 68% before the mothers undergone the second screening. Moderate anxiety was felt by 10% of the mothers during both the first and second screening. There were 8% of the mothers having severe anxiety during the first screening but have reduced to half (4%) before the mothers undergone the second screening. The anxiety level was significantly less before the second screening with the median score of 5 (IQR: 13.0) compared to after the first screening (8, IQR=14.25); p=0.001.

There are considerable portion of the mothers of false-positive test result during Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening Program experienced unacceptable anxiety. This group of mothers needs to be identified and given a necessary help.