Despite national guidelines, newborn and infant hearing screening (NIHS) is not universally implemented in South Africa, with scarce data on programme outcomes within the public health sector. OBJECTIVES: To describe NIHS outcomes and implementation patterns at a tertiary paediatric hospital in the Western Cape.
The findings confirm systemic implementation failures in newborn hearing screening at this site; audiologists and programme managers in similar low-resource settings should audit their own screening uptake and follow-up rates against national EHDI benchmarks.
Persistent gaps in early hearing detection in under-resourced settings mean preventable language and developmental delays in children — highlighting the urgent need for sustainable programme infrastructure in South Africa.
- 01Study reports newborn and infant hearing screening (NIHS) outcomes at a tertiary paediatric hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa.
- 02Implementation was inconsistent despite existing national EHDI (early hearing detection and intervention) guidelines.
- 03Findings point to systemic barriers rather than lack of policy as the core problem.
- 04Results are likely relevant to other tertiary hospitals in low- and middle-income countries with similar resource constraints.
Newborn and infant hearing screening at the study hospital was inconsistently implemented despite national guidelines being in place.
studysupported- PMID
- 42240312
- DOI
- 10.4102/sajcd.v73i1.1168.
- Journal
- South African Journal of Communication Disorders
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Newborns and infants screened at a tertiary paediatric hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa
- Intervention
- Newborn and infant hearing screening programme
Primary outcomes
Hearing screening outcomes (pass/refer rates); Consistency of programme implementation against national EHDI guidelines