The effects of mode of delivery, maternal age, birth weight, gender and family history on screening hearing results: A cross sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Congenital hearing impairment is one of the principal issues that make distress to families especially those with a family history of hearing problems. Early detection of hearing impairment can make a difference regarding cognitive, attention, learning, speech, and social and emotional development of babies. Otoacoustic test emission is a very common screening test that can be used to pick up early cases and relieve family stress. We tried to evaluate the factors that may disrupt our results regarding the OAE test. Methods A cross-sectional study included infants who were admitted to the nursery unit alone. Infants who were admitted to the NICU unit, infants with craniofacial anomalies, infants with vernix in the external auditory canal, and Infants with Stigmata associated with a syndrome known to include a sensorineural hearing loss were excluded from the study. Both transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) with distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) Screening tests were performed by the same professional audiologist experienced in neonatal screening. Results A total of 1413 newborns (733 males and 680 females) were included in the study. Among them, 1368 babies (96.8%) passed the first OAE in both ears, while 45 babies (3.2%) didn't pass the first OAE in one or both ears.Significant correlations between the female gender and family history of congenital hearing loss with failure of the first OAE test results. Moreover, vaginal delivery (VD) infants had a 1.5-fold higher failure rates of first OAE test screening results in comparison to caesarian delivery (CD) infants. Conclusion Our study demonstrated higher failure rates of the first OAE in female infants, vaginal delivery infants, and infants with a family history of hearing impairment. It is recommended to postpone the first phase of hearing screening for those infants until the first scheduled vaccine appointment to achieve higher compliance attendance, and decrease family stress associated with false-negative results of the test.

The Effects of Mode of Delivery on Neonatal Screening Evaluated by Automated Auditory Brainstem Response

“…The high test failure rate may be due to the short hospital stay of the mothers and, accordingly, the early testing after delivery (10). On the other hand, Al-Balas et al reported higher failure rates with VD, and Güven reported no difference between the groups (17,18). In our study, we observed no difference between the CS group and the VD group regarding hearing screening results.…”

The Relationship between Prenatal Risk Factors and The Incident of Sensorineural Deafness in Children at Polyclinic ENT- Head and Neck Zainoel Abidin Hospital Banda Aceh *,

“…In the 2021, The study of Al-Balas, a statistically significant relationship was found between family history and the results referred to the first OAE. According to Shahid in (Al-Balas, 2021) also reported that the probability of an OAE referral in infants with a family history of deafness is 11 times higher than the probability of infants without a family history [24]. The use of ototoxic drugs in this study could not be analyzed because it was found that most of the mothers did not exist and did not know that they had used ototoxic drugs during pregnancy.…”

Newborn Hearing Screening at Qena University Hospital

“…1368 neonates (96.8%) passed the first OAE (otoacoustic emissions) in both ears in Al-Balas et al (7) research, whereas 45 babies (30 females and 15 males) failed the first OAE in one or both ears at a rate of 3.2 percent. The lack of failed OAE in this study is attributed to the limited number of cases and short duration of the study.…”