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Published on: January 23, 2017
Failure of hearing screening in high-risk neonates does not increase parental anxiety
A Suppiej1, E Cainelli, M De Benedittis
1Child Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Paediatric University Hospital, Padua, Italy. suppiej@pediatria.unipd.it
Insights
Neonatal hearing screening failure does not increase parental anxiety in high-risk infants. This finding is crucial for evaluating universal screening programs and their impact on parents of infants from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Audiology
- Neonatal Care
Background:
- Neonatal hearing screening is a critical early detection tool.
- Parental anxiety is a significant factor in infant care and outcomes.
- High-risk infants often undergo more intensive screening and follow-up.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of neonatal hearing screening failure on parental anxiety levels.
- To compare anxiety in parents of high-risk versus low-risk infants after screening.
- To inform the cost-benefit analysis of universal neonatal hearing screening.
Main Methods:
- Parents of 288 infants (105 high-risk, 183 low-risk) completed the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and a custom questionnaire.
- Data were collected during audiological follow-up post-discharge from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or well-baby nursery.
- Homogeneous case-control pairs were used for analysis.
Main Results:
- No significant difference in anxiety levels was observed between parents of high-risk infants who passed or failed neonatal hearing screening.
- No significant difference in anxiety levels was found between parents of high-risk and low-risk infants who failed the screening.
- Parental anxiety levels were not significantly affected by hearing screening outcomes in this cohort.
Conclusions:
- Failure in neonatal auditory screening does not elevate anxiety in parents of high-risk infants post-NICU discharge.
- This finding suggests that screening failure alone may not be a primary driver of parental anxiety in this population.
- The results provide valuable data for assessing the overall value and resource allocation for universal neonatal hearing screening programs.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to determine whether a failure of neonatal hearing screening affected the anxiety level of parents of high-risk infants.
Methods:
Two hundred and eighty-eight parents of infants included in the neonatal hearing screening protocol of our Institution were tested with the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and with an open-question questionnaire investigating parents' attitude to hearing problems in their child, done at the time of audiological follow-up. 105 were parents of high-risk infants who had been discharged from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and 183 of low-risk infants discharged from well-baby nursery.
Results:
No differences in anxiety levels were seen between parents of high-risk infants passing and failing neonatal hearing screening using homogeneous case-control pairs. Additionally, no differences in the level of anxiety were found between parents of high- and low-risk infants failing neonatal auditory screening.
Conclusions:
Failure of neonatal auditory screening does not affect the anxiety levels of parents of high-risk infants at post discharge from NICU. This finding is a key factor to be considered when evaluating the costs and benefits of tests for universal neonatal hearing screening.
