Early Detection Programmes for Child Hearing Loss in Spain: Current Practices

In 2003, The Ministry of Health and Consumption, together with the Autonomous Communities (CCAA), approved a minimum and basic document concerning the establishment of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention State Programmes. Since then, the Commission for the early detection of hearing loss (CODEPEH) has made several updates and recommendations to improve these programmes. The objective of this study is to carry out a comparative analysis of how the CCAA established their Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programs and if they integrate the recommendations made by CODEPEH until 2017.

The programmes (or related documents) of 16 CCAA available on line or paper are reviewed RESULTS: The 16 Early Hearing Detection and Intervention strategies analyzed are different, either in the number of test to be performed, the time in which they are performed or the techniques used. More than a third of these programmes were published before 2010 and have not been updated. Otoacoustic emissions is the chosen technique as the first screening test in nine of the 16 CCAA. Only one CCAA incorporates the salivary polymerase chain reaction test for cytomegalovirus in children with altered screening test.

All CCAA perform Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programmes but the heterogeneity does not allow drawing reliable conclusions about the result of the screening process and it would be necessary to aim for unification with the elaboration of a national programme and an integrated general database.