Department of Rehabilitative Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Fort Hare, East London.
S Afr J Commun Disord. 2024 Oct 31;71(1):e1-e8. doi: 10.4102/sajcd.v71i1.1045.
Community-based universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) has not been fully realised in South Africa despite the availability of contextually relevant early hearing detection and intervention guidelines. Research has confirmed the feasibility of implementing UNHS programmes in urban contexts; however, limited information exists for rural contexts.
The aim of the study was to describe the outcomes in terms of coverage rate, referral rate and follow-up rate of a 1-year UNHS pilot programme implemented at three primary health care (PHC) clinics in the Limpopo province.
A descriptive retrospective review of 2 302 audiological records of infants who underwent NHS between July 2014 to June 2015 was conducted.
The mean age at first-stage screen was 112 days (16 weeks). The coverage rate was 87% for the infants screened at 3- and 10- days clinic visits and 27% for infants screened at the 6-week immunisation visit. The first-stage referral rate was 33.9% and 8.3% for the overall second stage referral for diagnostic audiology services. The follow-up rate for rescreens at the clinical level was 77%, while for initial diagnostic assessments, it was 26%.
Although not all benchmarks were met within the first year of implementation, the high coverage- and low referral rates, especially in the last 6 months, are the first steps in improving the outcomes of the screening programme.Contribution: The findings confirm the feasibility of implementing community-based UNHS programmes in rural areas in South Africa. Regular monitoring and evaluation contribute to the success of screening programmes.
尽管南非有与国情相关的早期听力检测和干预指南，但基于社区的普遍新生儿听力筛查（UNHS）并未得到全面实施。研究已经证实，在城市环境中实施 UNHS 计划是可行的；然而，农村环境的信息有限。
本研究旨在描述在林波波省三个初级保健 (PHC) 诊所实施为期一年的 UNHS 试点计划的覆盖范围、转诊率和随访率的结果。
对 2014 年 7 月至 2015 年 6 月期间接受 NHS 的 2302 名婴儿的听力记录进行了描述性回顾性分析。
第一阶段筛查的平均年龄为 112 天（16 周）。在 3 天和 10 天诊所就诊时筛查的婴儿的覆盖率为 87%，在 6 周免疫接种就诊时筛查的婴儿的覆盖率为 27%。第一阶段转诊率为 33.9%，整体第二阶段转诊进行诊断性听力学服务的转诊率为 8.3%。临床水平的重筛随访率为 77%，而初始诊断评估的随访率为 26%。
尽管在实施的第一年没有达到所有基准，但高覆盖率和低转诊率，尤其是在最后 6 个月，是改善筛查计划结果的第一步。
研究结果证实了在南非农村地区实施基于社区的 UNHS 计划的可行性。定期监测和评估有助于筛查计划的成功。
