Title: Should Newborn Hearing Screening be the Standard of Care in the United States
1Parental Anxiety Associated with Newborn Hearing
Screening
Karl R. White, PhD National Center for Hearing
Assessment and Management Utah State
University www.infanthearing.org
2Percentage of Newborns Screened Prior to
Discharge
3Why Is there so much concern about the
possibility that newborn hearing screening may
cause parental anxiety?
Statements of prominent clinicians and
researchers Evidence from other types of
screening programs Research with newborn hearing
screening programs
4What do leading clinicians and researchers say?
There is much evidence from studies of other
types of newborn screening that identifying a
child as abnormal in the newborn period, even
when that identification soon proves incorrect,
can engender lasting anxiety on the part of
certain parents and can have long-term adverse
effects on parent-child relationships and on
childrens later psychological development.
--- Paradise, 1999
The cost of universal screening in both monetary
and emotional terms are substantial, while the
real world benefits have, as of yet, to be
determined. It is likely that some families are
actually harmed emotionally due to the
significant high false-postive rates.
--- Luterman, 1999
Confronting parents with the news that their
child did not pass the screen even when this
possibility is not born out by further testing,
may have significant long-term sequelae for both
parents and children. ---
Clayton and Tharpe, 1997
5Parental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Conditions other than Hearing Loss
6Parental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Conditions other than Hearing
Loss(continued)
7Parental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Hearing Loss
8Parental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Hearing Loss(continued)
9Parental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Hearing Loss(continued)
10SummaryParental Concern Associated with Newborn
Screening for Hearing Loss
11Directions for Future Research
- Are parents more worried about newborn hearing
screening than other conditions? - Eating and sleeping concerns
- Growth and development
- Other screening and health concerns
- Immediate versus long-term concerns
- Comparison of parents of babies who passed and
failed screening - Inclusions of fathers
12Take Home Messages
- Better research is needed
- There is some evidence, that newborn screening
for conditions such as cystic fibrosis can cause
higher levels of parent anxiety - There is no convincing evidence that newborn
hearing screening increases parent anxiety
13www.infanthearing.org
14www.babyhearing.org