Diagnose, Versorgung und Frühförderung hörgeschädigter Kinder nach dem Neugeborenenhörscreening – gelingt alles tatsächlich „früh“?

Background: Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) in Germany offers the opportunity to detect congenital hearing loss at the earliest possible time and to provide early diagnosis, early hearing device provision, and early intervention to children with peripheral hearing loss. However, hearing screening alone does not necessarily result in children receiving hearing devices and early intervention at the earliest. Method: In the present study, n=316 mothers of children with hearing loss born in 2009 or later provided retrospective information on a questionnaire on if their child had undergone UNHS, at what time the final diagnosis was made, and at what time hearing devices were provided and early intervention began. For evaluation, cluster analyses, discriminant analyses, and variance analyses were performed. Results: The results show that particularly children with congenital unilateral and mild hearing loss were recognized later. Severe-to-profound congenital hearing loss is diagnosed and treated earlier, but not in all cases. As expected, children with late-onset hearing loss are diagnosed much later than children with congenital hearing loss. There are large time differences between the time of diagnosis, the provision of hearing devices and the onset of early intervention between the three groups. Conclusion: Early detection of congenital and late-onset hearing loss in childhood is a prerequisite for early provision of hearing devices and referral to early intervention. In addition to improving tracking after UNHS, there is a need for further hearing screenings and pediatric audiometric or hearing diagnostics.