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Inpatient Audiologic Services Facilitate Early Hearing Detection

Angie Zemba1, Chloe Vaughan1, Holly Gerth1

  • 1Division of Clinical Therapies, Department of Audiology, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH.

American Journal of Audiology
|January 17, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Early hearing detection for infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is crucial. In-NICU audiology services may reduce loss to follow-up and expedite diagnosis for congenital hearing loss.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal care
  • Audiology
  • Pediatric health

Background:

  • Infants requiring neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) intervention often face delays in congenital hearing loss diagnosis.
  • These infants are at a higher risk for hearing impairments, necessitating timely screening and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate early hearing detection outcomes in infants with a history of NICU admission.
  • To determine if in-NICU diagnostic audiology services accelerate diagnosis and intervention for hearing loss.

Main Methods:

  • A retrospective chart review of 367 infants with NICU history undergoing diagnostic audiology testing (2018-2021).
  • Data collected included NICU location, insurance type, and race/ethnicity to analyze time to diagnosis.
  • Comparison of diagnostic timelines based on the level of in-NICU audiology care provided.

Main Results:

  • 70% of NICU infants received a hearing diagnosis by 3 months corrected age.
  • In-NICU audiology services did not significantly alter the corrected age at diagnosis.
  • Loss to follow-up rates were lower in NICUs with inpatient audiology services (6.8%) compared to those without (10.0%).
  • In-NICU testing occurred 5.7 weeks earlier than outpatient evaluations, expediting diagnosis.

Conclusions:

  • Early hearing detection is achievable in the medically complex NICU population.
  • Inpatient audiology diagnostic testing in the NICU setting can potentially reduce loss to follow-up.
  • Implementing in-NICU audiology services may facilitate earlier hearing detection and intervention for at-risk infants.
Abstract

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