Incidence of Neonatal Hearing Loss by Otoacoustic Emission Screening at Takuapa Hospital

Abstract

Background : Hearing loss is one of the key defects that affects newborn and infant’s ability to develop speech, language, and learning skills. Early diagnosis and intervention before 6-months-old is needed to reduce the severity of the hearing loss. Otoacoustic emission (OAE) screening provides a safe, quick, and easy way of diagnosing the cochlear malfunction in baby. However, it is not commonly used in hospital.
Objective : To study an incidence of infant with hearing loss and determine risk factors associated with the hearing loss.
Methods : Infants of 2,288 between January 2015-December 2018 from Takuapa hospital, Phang-nga province were enrolled in this study. The infants were screened with OAE, health checked-up, and their parents were interviewed for risk factors.
Results : Out of 2,288 infants (55.81% boy), the results by OAE screening found that there are 12 infants who failed the hearing test 3 times. Ten out of 12 infants were both ears hearing loss while the rest (2 out of 12) was one ear hearing loss. Combining with the check-up history, 9 of 12 were high risk infants. Seven infants were hyperbilirubinemia while the other two were very low birth weight. In addition, we further identified other risk factors associated with the hearing loss i.e. chromosomal anomalies (trisomy 21), hereditary hearing loss, ototoxic drugs, low Apgar score, and craniofacial abnormalities. However, there were 3 infants with no risk factors mentioned above. The incidence of hearing loss in this study was also calculated and showed that the infant with 2 ears hearing loss was 0.44% whereas one ear hearing loss was 0.09%.
Conclusion : Incidence of hearing loss in infants at Takuapa hospital by OAE screening was 0.52%. OAE is an effective tool for screening of hearing loss. Check-up history also provides information about risk factors that facilitates an early diagnosis and clinical intervention. This would improve their abilities on language and speech which further help their communication and expression in daily life.