Newborn hearing screening devices: sound advice on choosing the right technology.

Infant hearing loss occurs more often than any other problem screened for at birth. Finding such hearing loss helps to prevent early developmental delays that can hinder a child's physical, mental, and emotional growth. To address this public health concern, many hospitals are implementing universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) programs. They are called "universal" because the objective is to test all newborns. Such programs use auditory brainstem response (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAE), or a combination of the two to screen newborn hearing. A goal of any newborn hearing screening program is to reduce the false-positive rates that result in unnecessary referrals. Such rates should be kept low because unnecessary referrals mean personnel must spend extra time scheduling follow-up testing, thus increasing program costs. Therefore, referral rates and costs will be the main factors when hospitals are choosing the appropriate screening technology.