Universal hearing screening on a maternity ward using otoacoustic emissions: practical aspects and parental views.

Objective. - Evaluation of the feasability and parental attitudes towards a hearing screening programme using evoked otoacoustic emissions, implemente d in a maternity ward in France. Methods. - A hearing screening test using transiently evoked otoacoustic em issions (TEOAE) was proposed to each baby, and an anonymous questionnaire w as given to parents to assess their attitudes towards the screening procedu re. Results. - Although the refusal of the test reached 16% (mainly during the first two weeks of the program), more than 92% of parents judged the test a s being useful, and 65% wished it to be systematically done. However, nearl y 35% of parents admitted to have a low level anxiety about being unnecessa rily worried by the test results. One hundred and twenty-four babies were s creened. Fifty three per cent of the tests have been performed in less than ten minutes, with an average of 12.2 minutes. This duration does not inclu de delays due to programme and babies management. False positive rate (uni or bilateral fail) was 10.5% at the first stage. Repeating the test before discharge decreased the false positive rate to 6.5%. Conclusion. - Although limited in time, this study shows that a systematic hearing screening programme using TEOAE is possible and should be done in F rance. False positive rate was below 7% and the test was considered as usef ul by more than 90% of parents, although knowledge about deafness in childh ood and its consequences were clearly insufficient. (C) 2001 Editions scien tifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.