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Newborn Hearing Screening Wales Annual Statistical Report 2017-18

Details:

Published on: 26th March 2020

  • All Wales/National
  • Annual

This is the fourteenth annual statistical report published by Newborn Hearing Screening Wales (NBHSW). This report covers data for babies born between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018.

One or two babies in every 1,000 are born with a hearing loss that may affect their speech and language development. NBHSW was launched in 2003 and aims to identify these babies as early as possible, as evidence shows that introducing an early support programme before six months of age leads to better outcomes for speech and language development.

Headline statistics

  • The coverage rates show that screening is offered to 100.0% (actual figure 99.95% but rounded to one decimal place) of eligible babies with 99.4% tested, with very few parents declining the screen
  • Across Wales, 74.5% of well babies are screened within seven days of birth
  • 100.0% of high risk babies complete the screening programme and 98.3% of well babies complete screening within four weeks
  • 1.3% of babies screened are referred for assessment
  • 90.5% of babies referred for assessment complete the assessment process within three months
  • The time taken to start the assessment process is within the allocated time for 97.2% of well babies (within four weeks of final screening test) and 98.4% of high risk babies (within eight weeks of final screening test)
  • 95.0% of babies referred attended an assessment

April 2017 – March 2018

  • The number of births across Wales was 33,276
  • The number of babies eligible and suitable for screening was 32,450
  • The number of babies whose parents consented to screening and were tested was 32,257
  • 73.4% of assessment appointments were attended
  • 5.0% of babies referred for assessment were not seen due to non-attendance
  • In babies born between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018, the prevalence of diagnosed permanent hearing loss greater than 40 dBHL was 1.1 per 1,000 of those babies screened. This is consistent with the prevalence since the start of the programme
  • The mean age of confirmation of hearing loss was 8.2 weeks
  • The mean age of hearing aid fitting was 14.7 weeks
  • 91.4% of babies were fitted with hearing aids within four weeks of confirmation of hearing loss
  • Since the introduction of universal newborn hearing screening in 2003, the prevalence of permanent significant bilateral hearing loss (defined as greater than 40 dBHL) in children under five years is 1.5 per 1,000

Report downloads

Newborn Hearing Screening Wales Annual Statistical Report 2017-18

PDF, 920KB

Download PDF - Newborn Hearing Screening Wales Annual Statistical Report 2017-18 (920 KB)

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