National survey of paediatric audiological services for diagnosis and intervention in the South African private health care sector

摘要

OBJECTIVE : A national survey of early hearing detection and intervention services wasundertaken to describe the current status of diagnostic and intervention services in the SouthAfrican private health care sector.METHODS : All private hospitals with obstetric units (n = 166) were surveyed telephonically. Thedata was integrated with data collected from self-administered questionnaires subsequentlydistributed nationally to private audiology practices providing hearing screening at therespective hospitals reporting hearing screening services (n = 87). Data was analyseddescriptively to yield national percentages and frequency distributions.RESULTS : Average reported age at diagnosis was 11 months. Most participants (74%) indicatedthat less than 20% of infants fitted with hearing aids received amplification before the ageof 6 months. Most (64%) participants indicated that the average period between confirmeddiagnosis and hearing aid fitting was 1 month, on par with international benchmarks. Only16%–23% of participants included all diagnostic procedures recommended by the HealthProfessions Council of South Africa’s 2007 position statement for minimum diagnostic testbatteries for infants and young children.CONCLUSIONS : Diagnosis of hearing loss, hearing aid fitting and audiological interventionis delayed significantly in the South African private health care sector. Improved servicesshould include integrated systematic hospital-based screening as part of birthing packageswith diagnostic referral to specialist paediatric audiologists for accurate assessment andmanagement of patients in a timely manner.