The Impact of COVID-19 on Universal Newborn Hearing Screening.

OBJECTIVES: To report the direct and indirect impact of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening program of our institution (Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Sassari). DESIGN: Monocentric retrospective study whose target population included all the newborns born in or referred to our hospital in 2019 and 2020. RESULTS: There is no statistically significant difference in time to retest or loss to follow-up rate between the 2 years considered (2019 to 2020). Referral rate is not higher for newborns born to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 polymerase chain reaction positive mothers. CONCLUSIONS: In relation to the analyzed variables, coronavirus disease 2019 seems to have a limited impact on our screening program. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 did not behave as an audiological risk factor in our series.

Audiological Risk Factors, Referral Rates and Dropouts: 9 Years of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in North Sardinia.

Background: Objectives of the present work were to analyze the prevalence of hearing loss in our population of screened newborns during the first 9 years of the universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program at University Hospital Sassari (Italy) (AOU Sassari), to analyze the risk factors involved, and to analyze our effectiveness in terms of referral rates and dropout rates. Methods: Monocentric retrospective study whose target population included all the newborns born or referred to our hospital between 2011 and 2019. Results: From 2011 to 2019, a total of 11,688 babies were enrolled in our screening program. In total, 3.9‱ of wellborn babies and 3.58% of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies had some degree of hearing loss. The most frequently observed risk factors among non-NICU babies were family history of hearing loss (3.34%) and craniofacial anomalies (0.16%), among NICU babies were low birth weight (54.91%) and prematurity (24.33%). In the multivariate analysis, family history of hearing loss (p < 0.001), NICU (p < 0.001), craniofacial anomalies (p < 0.001), low birth weight (<1500 g) (p = 0.04) and HIV (p = 0.03) were confirmed as risk factors. Conclusions: Our data are largely consistent with the literature and most results were expected, one relevant exception being the possible role of NICU as a confounding factor and the limited number of risk factors confirmed in the multivariate analysis.