Objectives: To measure the true prevalence of hearing impairment in neonates in
Tafila, Jordan.
Material and Methods: This retrospective study was carried out at Prince Zeid
Hospital, Taflia, Jordan through analysis of data of all births from January 2005 and
January 2006. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) were measured via
the application of echoprobe to both ears. There were two groups of births that were
analysed statistically. Hearing impaired neonates were those with two fails or more in
each ear. Normal ones were those with 3 pass or more.
Results: Of the 1788 babies in the study group, 1622 (90.7%) were enrolled in the
study with 9.3% loss rate. 1512 babies were examined on the 2nd day of birth, 2 of
them had hearing impairment with a rate of 1.2/1000. 110 babies were screened on the
day of discharge from the nursery, one of them with hearing defect with a rate of
5.9/1000. Thus, true prevalence of hearing impaiment or failure was 1.7/1000.
2
Conclusion: We conclude that screening for hearing impairment in the neonatal
period is easy, informative and the true prevalence of hearing impairment in Tafila is
similar to that in different parts of the world. (Rawal Med J 2007;32:45-46)
Key words: Prevalence, hearing impairment, TEOAE
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