Value of Newborn Hearing Screening on Early Intervention in the Saudi Population and Review of International Records

Background Hearing impairment is found to be the most prevalent disabling condition worldwide. Early diagnosis is crucial to avoid speech and language delays and to ensure the best performance results after cochlear implant (CI) surgery. Universal newborn hearing screening is a way to recognize newborns with a hearing impairment with or without risk factors. In this article, we have studied the effect of the newborn hearing screening program on early presentation to a healthcare center and, hence, early intervention in patients with congenital hearing loss, and reviewed the international numbers. Objectives The objective of this study was to determine whether neonatal hearing screening in Saudi Arabia helped prelingually deaf children to present earlier or not. Design Retrospective cross-sectional review Setting King Abdullah Ear Specialist Center (KAESC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Subjects and methods We included all patients who presented to the CI committee for the first time at KAESC, between March 2016 and March 2018, and met the inclusion criteria. Data were retrieved through phone calls and patient files. The sample size was 242. Main outcomes The timing difference between those who were screened positive for hearing loss at birth versus patients who were screened negative or not screened at all. Results By far, patients who were screened positive for hearing loss presented earlier (p-value >0.001) to a healthcare center than those who were not screened at all or screened negative for hearing loss and they finished the journey to CI 17 months earlier than those who were not screened. On the other hand, those who were screened negative were not found to present later than those who were not screened. Conclusion Going with the international trend, screening was found to have a significant positive effect on age at presentation, diagnosis, hearing aid fitting, surgery, and, hence, performance after implantation. Testing false negative on screening did not show a significant further delay when compared to those who were not screened.