Analysis of measurements from the first Swedish universal neonatal hearing screening program.

This study analyses results from the first Swedish UNHS program. It includes over 33 000 measurement files from 14 287 children at two maternity wards. The screening program uses a two-stage TEOAE test procedure. A database was created in MedLog after data transformation in Word and Excel. The coverage rate was 99.1%. Bilateral pass rate after retesting was 97.0%. A unilateral pass criterion would have resulted in 1268 fewer children (9.0% of target group) for retesting and 231 fewer children (1.6% of target group) for diagnostic evaluation. When the first test was performed on the day the child was born, the pass rate was 64.8%; the pass rate increased to 89.2% when testing> or =3 days after birth. High coverage rates and pass rates were found to be possible, independent of the number of children born at the maternity ward. Learning curves were observed in the program with improvements distributed over time. Test performance was clearly better when the children were tested day two after birth or later.