A Study on Risk Factors of Deafness in Neonates: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

Background: Identification of newborn hearing loss is addressed in the healthy people 2010 goals, stated as “increasing the proportions of newborn who are screened for hearing loss by age one month, have audiologic evaluation by age 3 months and are enrolled in appropriate intervention services by age 6 months. Methods: The study was conducted between October 2008 to October 2009 at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. The study group constituted of 200 ears of 100 neonates (0-28 days) that were randomly selected. The neonates were taken from immunization clinic, newborn nursery, neonatal ward and intensive care unit of our hospital and also those referred from other hospitals. Results: Out of 100 the neonates aged between 1-4 days were 67, 5-9 days were 24 and between 10-28 days were 9. Conclusions: There were no neonates with low Apgar score, no family history of hearing loss, no exposure to ototoxic drugs and no neonate on mechanical ventilator.