Outcomes of regional-based newborn hearing screening for 35,461 newborns for 5 years in Akita, Japan

Newborn hearing screening (NHS) has been actively performed since 2001 in Akita, Japan. The NHS coverage rate has increased yearly, and performance has been consistently >90% since 2012. The purpose of this study was to summarize NHS outcomes in the Akita prefecture of Japan and to obtain new insights for from our summarized data for the future.

A total of 35,461 newborns in hospitals and clinics where hearing screening was performed in Akita from 2012 to 2016 were included. The outcome data of NHS were collected for analysis.

The overall screening coverage rate for hearing loss was 94.7%. Of the screened infants, 0.53% received a referral on the 2-stage automated auditory brainstem response (ABR), and 80.4% of referred infants had a check-up at the hospital to receive a diagnostic hearing examination. Finally, the prevalence of bilateral congenital hearing loss was 0.14%, that of bilateral moderate to profound hearing loss was 0.12%, and that of unilateral congenital hearing loss was 0.10%. Furthermore, the average consultation period in infants with risk factors was significantly later than that in infants without risk factors (p = 0.0015). Follow-up for infants diagnosed with normal hearing after diagnostic hearing examination revealed that 4.7% suffered bilateral moderate to profound hearing loss later. This percentage is significantly higher than that of the general group (p < 0.001).

The prevalence of bilateral congenital hearing loss was 0.14% in Akita and 0.12% of infants were diagnosed with bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss. Medical personnel should be enlightened regarding the importance of performing hearing diagnostic examinations until 3 months of age. Even if infants were diagnosed with normal hearing after a diagnostic examination, we strongly suggest continuing follow-up until they are able to perform pure tone audiometry with accuracy.