 Newborn Hearing Screening
Hearing loss is one of the most common developmental abnormalities present at birth. Approximately, one to three infants per thousand are born with significant hearing loss. If this condition goes undetected, it will impede speech, language, and cognitive development, thus resulting in significant health costs. In 1993 less than five percent of all infants were screened for hearing loss prior to hospital discharge. Today the amount of infants screened has risen to sixty-five percent. The more established programs are able to screen ninety-five percent of all newborns prior to discharge. Research shows that newborn hearing screening substantially reduces the age at which children with congenital permanent hearing loss are identified. Technology is currently available to conduct cost-efficient, physiological screening on a universal basis prior to hospital discharge.
Signed into law in 1999, the federal Newborn Infant Hearing Screening and Intervention Act provides up to three years of grant funding to states for development of screening and intervention programs. As of March 2001, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) had awarded grants to 38 states to improve hearing screening and follow-up services for infants. HRSA plans to provide funding for such programs in several more states in the future.
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This site is made possible by project, MCU 1 H03 MC 00017, from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Title V, Social Security Act), Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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