Community-based infant hearing screening: Outcomes of a rural pilot programme.
Khomotjo S Kgare, Karin Joubert
PMID 39494639WHAT IT FOUND
Community hearing screening by trained laypeople reached 87% of infants at early postnatal visits but only 27% at 6-week immunisations.
While feasible in rural settings, high referral rates and poor follow-up meant most infants did not receive diagnostic confirmation.
Key findings
01Screening coverage was high at 3- and 10-day postnatal visits (87%) but low at 6-week immunisation visits (27%).
02Referral rates after the second screening stage (8.3%) exceeded the national benchmark of less than 5%.
03Follow-up rates were poor, with only 26% of infants referred for diagnostic assessment returning for evaluation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was a pilot in a single rural district, limiting generalisability to urban or other regional contexts. Diagnostic outcomes were incomplete for many infants due to low follow-up rates and equipment shortages at the district hospital. A significant portion of diagnostic results (28/50) were inconclusive, reducing the reliability of prevalence estimates. The mean age at screening was higher than the national benchmark of 6 weeks, which may have affected referral rates due to infant alertness.
Declared interests
The drafting of the article was supported by the New Generation of Academics’ Programme Phase 7. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high coverage rate at postnatal visits as evidence of a successful screening programme. The system failed to convert screening into diagnosis, with only 26% of referred infants attending diagnostic assessment and many results remaining inconclusive.