Parental Anxiety Associated with Newborn Hearing Screening

1. Parental Anxiety Associated with Newborn Hearing Screening Karl R. White, PhD National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management Utah State University www.infanthearing.org

2. Percentage of Newborns Screened Prior to Discharge

3. Why Is there so much concern about the possibility that newborn hearing screening may cause parental anxiety? Statements of prominent clinicians and researchers Evidence from other types of screening programs Research with newborn hearing screening programs

4. What do leading clinicians and researchers say? There is much evidence from studies of other types of newborn screening that identifying a child as abnormal in the newborn period, even when that identification soon proves incorrect, can engender lasting anxiety on the part of certain parents and can have long-term adverse effects on parent-child relationships and on children’s later psychological development. --- Paradise, 1999 The cost of universal screening in both monetary and emotional terms are substantial, while the “real world” benefits have, as of yet, to be determined. It is likely that some families are actually harmed emotionally due to the significant high false-postive rates. --- Luterman, 1999 Confronting parents with the news that their child did not pass the screen …even when this possibility is not born out by further testing, may have significant long-term sequelae for both parents and children. --- Clayton and Tharpe, 1997

5. Parental Concern Associated withNewborn Screening for Conditions other than Hearing Loss

6. Parental Concern Associated with Newborn Screening for Conditions other than Hearing Loss(continued)

7. Parental Concern Associated with Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss

8. Parental Concern Associated with Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss(continued)

9. Parental Concern Associated with Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss(continued)

10. SummaryParental Concern Associated with Newborn Screening for Hearing Loss

11. Directions for Future Research • Are parents more worried about newborn hearing screening than other conditions? • Eating and sleeping concerns • Growth and development • Other screening and health concerns • Immediate versus long-term concerns • Comparison of parents of babies who passed and failed screening • Inclusions of fathers

12. Take Home Messages • Better research is needed • There is some evidence, that newborn screening for conditions such as cystic fibrosis can cause higher levels of parent anxiety • There is no convincing evidence that newborn hearing screening increases parent anxiety

13. www.infanthearing.org

14. www.babyhearing.org