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. 2016 Jan;101(1):9-15.
doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2014-307516. Epub 2014 Nov 25.

The impact of universal newborn hearing screening on long-term literacy outcomes: a prospective cohort study

Hannah Pimperton  1 , Hazel Blythe  2 , Jana Kreppner  2 , Merle Mahon  3 , Janet L Peacock  4 , Jim Stevenson  2 , Emmanouela Terlektsi  1 , Sarah Worsfold  1 , Ho Ming Yuen  1 , Colin R Kennedy  5
Affiliations

The impact of universal newborn hearing screening on long-term literacy outcomes: a prospective cohort study

Hannah Pimperton et al. Arch Dis Child. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether the benefits of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) seen at age 8 years persist through the second decade.

Design: Prospective cohort study of a population sample of children with permanent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) followed up for 17 years since birth in periods with (or without) UNHS.

Setting: Birth cohort of 100 000 in southern England.

Participants: 114 teenagers aged 13-19 years, 76 with PCHI and 38 with normal hearing. All had previously their reading assessed aged 6-10 years.

Interventions: Birth in periods with and without UNHS; confirmation of PCHI before and after age 9 months.

Main outcome measure: Reading comprehension ability. Regression modelling took account of severity of hearing loss, non-verbal ability, maternal education and main language.

Results: Confirmation of PCHI by age 9 months was associated with significantly higher mean z-scores for reading comprehension (adjusted mean difference 1.17, 95% CI 0.36 to 1.97) although birth during periods with UNHS was not (adjusted mean difference 0.15, 95% CI -0.75 to 1.06). The gap between the reading comprehension z-scores of teenagers with early compared with late confirmed PCHI had widened at an adjusted mean rate of 0.06 per year (95% CI -0.02 to 0.13) during the 9.2-year mean interval since the previous assessment.

Conclusions: The benefit to reading comprehension of confirmation of PCHI by age 9 months increases during the teenage years. This strengthens the case for UNHS programmes that lead to early confirmation of permanent hearing loss.

Trial registration number: ISRCTN03307358.

Keywords: Deafness; Neurodevelopment; Outcomes research; Screening.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Numbers of teenagers with permanent childhood hearing impairment who were eligible for the study and assessed for reading ability at primary school and teenage. Greyed out section of the figure indicates the previous study at age 6–10 years. dB HL, decibels hearing level.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Unadjusted mean reading comprehension z-scores in children with permanent childhood hearing impairment at age 6–10 years and 13–19 years by age of confirmation of hearing impairment. Error bars represent the 95% CI of the means in the 26 early confirmed and 36 late confirmed participants who provided data at both primary school age and teenage.
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References

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