Triagem auditiva neonatal em uma maternidade pública de Curitiba-PR: fatores determinantes para a não adesão ao reteste

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This paper has as its theme "Newborn Hearing Screening in a Public Maternity Hospital in Curitiba - PR: Determining Factors for non Adherence to Retesting". According to the 2010 IBGE Census, 5.1% of the population experiences some hearing difficulty. Under Law 12.303/10, it became mandatory to carry out the so-called "Newborn Hearing Test", in newborns before hospital discharge, in order to diagnose possible hearing problems by three months of age. When there is a risk indicator for hearing loss, for the mother or baby, auditory monitoring must be carried out through otoacoustic emissions during the 1st year of the baby’s life. It happens that many mothers do not appear for the hearing retest, thereby undermining the monitoring for these children. OBJECTIVE: To identify the determinants for non-adherence to retesting in neonatal hearing screening at a public hospital in the city of Curitiba-PR for mothers of newborns who presented risk factors for deafness but did not attend retesting. METHOD: 60 mothers of babies who missed the mandatory hearing retest for neonatal hearing screening (NHS) were interviewed. The mother's age, education, marital status, level of knowledge about screening, reasons for non-adherence to retest were the variables considered. The responses were entered into a spreadsheet and submitted to Fischer and Chi-squared tests at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The predominant age range of the mothers was 20-29 years (41.67%); 51.67% were educated only to a primary level, and 46.67% to a high school level. Regarding marital status, 70% of the sample lived alone. All respondents reported that infants listened well, but 63.33% were unaware of the NHS. Among the respondents, 90% received no prenatal guidance or explanatory material about the OAE test; only 20% were targeted during hospitalization; 30% of the sample stated that they "forgot" to do the retest. No significant relationship between age, education and marital status for non-adherence to the retest was found. CONCLUSION: Among the reasons identified for non-adherence to the retest, a large number of participants did not see the needed value in retesting, since the mothers forgot the retest date. This fact allows us to infer that the lack of knowledge about neonatal hearing screening interferes with adherence to the program. However, age, education and marital status did not seem to interfere with the decision to retest and monitor the newborn’s hearing health. The concept of adherence to the retest requires greater analysis by multidisciplinary health professionals. These professionals should be sensitized to the problem because it is their responsibility to make mothers aware of the retest’s importance through knowledge, appreciation and participation in the program. Better communication between health care networks and mothers is needed; conducting informational and motivational campaigns for pregnant women; using standard civil media channels for better orientation about early detection of hearing impairment, since there is little knowledge about the subject.