Role of the National Institute of Education for the Deaf in Hearing Screening Tests

Introduction: The National Institute of Education for the Deaf, a Federal Agency of Education and a national point of reference for hearing impairment in Brazil, performs hearing screening tests on newborn babies in maternity hospitals that do not offer the hearing test and/or retest, which is required according to the law no. 12,303 of August 2, 2010.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to standardize the procedures of hearing screening performed at the National Institute of Education for the Deaf, as recommended by the Multidisciplinary Committee on Hearing Health, enabling the monitoring of results and the tracking of lost cases, ensuring the audiological diagnosis until the third month of life.

Methods: A computerized database was elaborated for entering the data of babies attended in the hearing screening tests. The data were analyzed reading the average age (in days) and percentage of results in the test and retest (pass/fail). The insertion and analysis were performed using the program Microsoft Excel 2010.

Results: The database used for the test was from July 2013 to December 2013, and it registered the evaluation of 733 infants, with an average age of 48 days, in which 632 infants passed and 101 failed the test. From the failed infants, 34 passed the retest, 28 failed, and 39 infants did not return for reevaluation.

Conclusion: The standardization of data allows the monitoring of the entire process, providing an overview of hearing screening performed at the Institute, reinforcing its importance in this context.

Keywords: hearing screening, deafness, standardization.