Matricial support for community health agents on the auditory and language development milestones in early childhood.
Lidiane Assis da Silva, Vanessa de Lima Silva
PMID 37672410WHAT IT FOUND
Community health agents had fragile knowledge of hearing and language milestones, with only 22% using the health record to track them.
A workshop improved their reporting of milestone knowledge and home visit questioning, though they still did not report changes in hearing-specific practices.
Key findings
01Only 22.2% of agents used hearing and language milestones from the personal child health record, and 66.7% did not feel trained to instruct families on these milestones.
02Before the workshop, agents did not ask about hearing during home visits and families did not raise hearing concerns.
03After the workshop, agents reported asking parents about reactions to loud sounds, but the analysis found no difference in the categories for hearing and language knowledge.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 18 agents completed the survey and only 4 participated in the focus groups, which is too small to draw firm conclusions. The study took place during the pandemic, which restricted the qualitative phase to four participants. The analysis found no difference in the hearing and language categories before and after the workshop, despite agents reporting they had learned more. There was no control group, so it is unclear whether the workshop or other factors changed the agents' behavior.
Declared interests
The paper does not report any funding sources or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the workshop effectively changed how agents screen for hearing issues. The study's own analysis stated there was a lack of difference in the categories for hearing and language development before and after the intervention.