Newborn Hearing Screening: the relation between bathing and the retesting rate

One of the goals of a Newborn Hearing Screening Program (NHSP) is to have a low retesting rate. AIM: To investigate the association between the retesting rate and the bath of newborn babies. Study design: cross-sectional contemporary cohort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Transient otoacoustic emissions (TOE) results have been compared to the information received from the nurse's aide who bathed the babies on the day of the test (373 newborns), and the time interval between the TOE study and the last bath (350 newborns). RESULTS: Significant statistical differences were found in relation to the percentage of retesting when babies were bathed by certain nurse's aides. On the other hand, the percentage of retesting decreased significantly when the time interval between the last bath and the TOE study was longer than 7 hours and 50 minutes. CONCLUSION: Moisture of the external acoustic meatus, caused by inappropriate protection against water during bath, and the short interval between the bath and the ETOE study, could be considered as possible factors causing retesting in NHSP programs.