Copyright 1999 Journal Sentinel Inc.
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
January 18, 1999 Monday All
SECTION: Health and Science Pg. 4
LENGTH: 665 words
HEADLINE:
Newborns not too young to get their hearing tested, expert says
Even
a 3-month delay in finding a problem could affect child's development
BYLINE: MAR
ILYNN MARCHIONE
SOURCE: Journal Sentinel staff
BODY:
All newborns should be tested for hearing
problems before they ever leave the hospital where they were born, a national
expert told local pediatricians at a conference here recently.
The
average age at which children are identified with hearing problems is now 21/2
to 3, but studies show that as little as a three-month delay in detecting a
hearing problem can have long-lasting consequences on a baby's language and
cognitive developm ent, said Karl White, director of the National Center for
Hearing Assessment and Management at Utah State University.
"Even mild
hearing losses can have serious detrimental effects on children later in life,"
he said.
Unless t reated properly so they learn speech early, "they will
never develop it in completely the same way," he said.
His trip was
sponsored by the March of Dimes and arranged by John Meurer, head of the Center
for the Advancement of Urban Children at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and a
faculty member of the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Meurer supports
universal hearing screening for newborns, which is required in some states and
was recommended by a panel of experts convened by the National Institutes of
Health in 1993.
At the time, only 11 hospitals were doing it. By the end
of 1997, 462 were. It's now estimated to be more than 650.
St. Mary's is
the only Milwaukee-area hospital that tests all newborns; it started in 1996.
"It's going great. We've screened about 5,000 babies," said Cheryl
Miller, a nurse who coordinates the program.
Waukesha Memorial Hospital
plans to start universal hearing screening on Feb. 1.
I n Racine, St.
Luke's Hospital also screens newborns' hearing universally, as does Meriter
Hospital in Madison and a few others around the state.
Some hospitals,
such as St. Joseph's in Milwaukee, screen only the babies in the neonatal inten
sive care unit, who are deemed to be at higher risk for hearing problems. The
hospital is working toward a goal of screening all newborns.
Still,
"we're only screening in 15% of hospitals," White said. "They tend to be the
larger hospital s, so we're probably screening 25% of babies."
Every
year, 200 to 400 babies are born in Wisconsin with some degree of hearing
impairment, Meurer said. The incidence is three in every 1,000 babies, making it
the most common birth defect.
Parents usually believe they can
tell their babies' hearing is normal, but newborns with hearing problems often
fool parents because they still startle at sudden, loud noises and turn toward
sounds, White said.
He showed a slide o f two 6-week-old babies wearing
hearing aids, diagnosed with hearing problems when they were only 2 weeks old.
"This is what we'd like to see," he said, explaining that getting babies
help when they're still very young lowers the chances they'll be retained a
grade in school or will develop learning problems later.
Hearing
screening of all newborns before they leave the hospital is the best way to
ensure that problems are detected early, White said.
Equipment cost used
to be the main barrier, but "it's getting cheaper, faster and easier to use," so
tests now cost about $25 a newborn, White said.
For screening, hospitals
either use auditory brain stem response or otoacoustic emissions testing. The
forme r is more accurate but also more expensive.
The latter, which is
becoming more common, places a tiny microphone in the newborn's ear. It emits a
series of tiny clicks, and the ear's responses are measured. The whole process
takes three mi nutes, White said.
The main barrier to universal
screening is that hospitals' payment from insurers for testing
babies' hearing is rolled in with the per-day fee they get for
newborns; adding a procedure becomes an extra expense that cuts
i nto their profit margins.
Insurers' willingness to pay, and hospitals'
willingness to test, will have to increase for universal screening to become a
standard of care, White said.
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