Hearing Screening of Newborn Babies at Korle By Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is often referred to as the invisible handicap and has been defined as debilitating, isolating and a frequently occurring abnormality present at birth.
Early identification of hearing loss is important because early auditory deprivation owing to
congenital or early-onset hearing loss interferes with the development of the neural structures
necessary for hearing and subsequent speech and language acquisition. Data on neonatal
hearing screening in Ghana is very sparse.
 
AIM: To screen the hearing of neonates using otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) at the Korle-Bu
Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Accra. 
 
METHODS: A descriptive survey on 511 neonates aged 1–3 months who were attending
clinic at the Reproductive Health Section (RHS) of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH)
during the period April 2013 and June 2013 was conducted. Mothers/caregivers of neonates
answered questions on their health during pregnancy, duration of pregnancy and medical
history of neonates. Neonates were screened with AuDx PRO otoacoustic emissions (OAE)
instrument.
 
RESULTS:  511 neonates were screened for hearing loss at the KBTH of which females
constituted 52.4% and 47.6%were males. 80.8% of the participants successfully passed the
screening test in both ears during the initial screening and an additional 5.7% also passed
after rescreening. However, 9.2% of the participants failed to report for rescreening.11.5% of
the population screened had risk factors. Among the total of 511 respondents, 99.2% of their
mothers/caregivers showed no awareness of neonatal hearing screening. Only 0.8% of the
respondents claimed to have some knowledge of neonatal hearing screening. 
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CONCLUSION: The risk factors for hearing loss identified with the neonates were birth
asphyxia, neonatal jaundice, sepsis, chicken pox and respiratory distress. There were infants
who had more than one risk factor. Even though 18% of the neonates were referred in either
one or both ears, about 9.2% of them did not return for rescreening. Very few
mothers/caretakers (0.8%) claimed to have some knowledge about neonatal hearing
screening. The remaining 99.2% had no knowledge about neonatal hearing screening.