Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention in Children with Unilateral Hearing Impairment: Clinical Practices in Three Nordic Countries

Nina Jakhelln Laugen; Elsa Erixon; Kerttu Huttunen; Elina Mäki-Torkko; Ulrika Löfkvist

doi:10.3390/jcm10215152

Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention in Children with Unilateral Hearing Impairment: Clinical Practices in Three Nordic Countries

J Clin Med. 2021 Nov 2;10(21):5152. doi: 10.3390/jcm10215152.

Authors

Nina Jakhelln Laugen¹, Elsa Erixon², Kerttu Huttunen^{3

4

5}, Elina Mäki-Torkko^{6

7}, Ulrika Löfkvist^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway.
² Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Research Unit of Logopedics and Child Language Research Center, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland.
⁴ Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Oulu University Hospital, 90220 Oulu, Finland.
⁵ Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland.
⁶ Audiological Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health, 70182 Örebro, Sweden.
⁷ School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, 70182 Örebro, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, 75122 Uppsala, Sweden.
⁹ Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC), Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden.

Abstract

Studies have limitedly considered children with early-identified unilateral hearing impairment (UHI), and clinical practices regarding screening, diagnostics and habilitation in this group are rarely documented. In this study, routines for newborns with UHI from screening to diagnostics and habilitation were explored in Norway, Sweden and Finland. An online survey was sent to hospitals responsible for the hearing diagnostics of children requesting information about their practices regarding congenital UHI. Responses covered 95% of the children born in the three included countries. The results revealed large variations in ways of organising healthcare and in clinical decisions regarding hearing screening, diagnostics and habilitation of children with congenital UHI. Finally, implications for policy making and research are also discussed.

Keywords: early intervention; family-centred intervention; follow-up; habilitation; healthcare inequality; hearing screening; single-sided deafness; unilateral hearing loss.