World Hearing Day is celebrated on 3 March. In Italy the 95% threshold of newborns undergoing universal screening has been exceeded
According to the World Health Organization’s World Report on Hearing, over 430 million people worldwide (equal to 5% of the global population) suffers from hearing loss which affects the quality of life and requires treatment. The majority of these people live in low- and middle-income countries. It is estimated that e
By 2050, this number could increase by more than 50% up to 700 million. World Hearing Day is celebrated on 3 March and the WHO has launched the theme To hear for life, listen with care! For the 2022 edition.
Keyword 2022: safe listening
Over 1.5 billion people currently suffer from some degree of hearing loss, which could grow to 2.5 billion by 2050. Additionally, 1.1 billion young people risk permanent hearing loss from listening to loud music for extended periods of time.. World Report on Hearing Shows Evidence-Based and Affordable Public Health Measures Can Prevent Many Causes of Hearing Loss, Points Out in the Report’s Foreword Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general. Hearing loss has often been defined an “invisible disability”not just because of the lack of visible symptoms, but because it has long been stigmatized in communities and ignored by policy makers. Unresolved hearing loss the third largest cause of years of living with disability globally adds. On World Hearing Day 2022, theWHO focuses on the importance of safe listening as a means of maintaining good hearing throughout life.
Screening within the first 2-3 months of life
Prevention still remains the first and most effective tool available. Early diagnosis of hearing impairments
congenital and progressive ones in newborns, generally done in the first 2-3 months of life, the best way to intervene promptly and decrease the percentage of cases of hearing loss with disabling outcomes. Unfortunately, there is also one of the causes of this pathology excessive exposure to noise generated by the most diverse sourcesfrom TV to devices, such as smartphones and tablets, on which information is essential for proper prevention. Also in our neonatal intensive care (Tin) we are daily engaged in interventions aimed at containment of noise exposure, sleep protection and parental involvement with encouragement to speak / read / sing to their infants for proper sensory development, she says Luigi Orfeopresident of the Italian Society of Neonatology (SIN), on the occasion of World Hearing Day.
The cause
Hearing loss or congenital deafness is a pathology that still affects 1.5-3 out of a thousand newborns today
and in some categories of children, such as premature infants hospitalized in Tin and those with familiarity for childhood hearing loss, l
a prevalence can be 10-20 times higher. Congenital neonatal hearing loss it may depend on genetic factors, which represent 50-60% of cases, but also external such as infections transmitted in the mother’s uterus, among which the most frequent is from cytomegalovirus
and then the congenital rubella
and the toxoplasmosis.
Congenital cytomegalovirus infection appears the most frequent cause of non-genetic hearing loss in industrialized countries and the main reason for the increase in prevalence from early childhood. Most of these newborns, however, do not have specific signs or symptoms at birth. Thanks to the universal audiological screening, which certifies its positivity, and the subsequent selective screening for congenital cytomegalovirus, the disease can be detected and taken care of immediately.continues Orfeo, who adds Today, fortunately, audiological screening is carried out in almost all neonatal intensive care units. Permanent childhood hearing loss can have serious consequences on the development of language and cognitive skills, even when isolated. Early diagnosis is the prerequisite for implementing adequate treatment and qualification measures within the timeframe and modalities.
The situation in Italy
After 20 years of constant and tenacious work to implement, monitor and analyze newborn hearing screening programs, in our country (see the graph below, on the trend from 2003 to 2017) finally exceeded the limit of 95% of newborns tested that the threshold set internationally for screening to be considered universal. This is confirmed by a recent study published in the international journal Annals of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, conducted by the National Institute of Analysis of Public Policies (INAPP), referent Luciano Bubbico, ENT specialist responsible for the neurosensory disabilities research group. Since 2017, with the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 12 January for the updating of Essential Levels of Care (LEA), hearing screening for congenital deafness is guaranteed free of charge to all newborns.
Major criticisms and causes
A total of 427,365 newborns out of 448,383
(95.3%) received the first level hearing screening test. In the Northwest coverage was 98.2% (114,070 out of 116,134 births), 98.6% (83,131 out of 84,087 births) in Northeast97.7% (85,435 out of 87,431 births) in Center89.6% (98,209 of 109,560 births) in the Southand 90.9% (46,520 out of 51,171 births) in the Islands. A total of 391 out of 409 maternity hospitals, (95.5%) screened those born during the three days of hospitalization at the nursery (first level). We are very pleased to have achieved such broad coverage though some critical issues remain in the South and in the Islands – explains Bubbico -. We now need to make screening qualitatively more efficient, in particular the number of “false positive” infants sent for a complete diagnostic study is still too high especially in neonatology with neonatal intensive care. This is due to the lack of homogeneity of the protocols followed.
Research projects and technological innovation
Based on this consolidated scientific evidence, l’Inapp promoted a research project funded by Ministry of Healthin collaboration with theHigher Institute of Healthwith the aim of preparing together with the scientific representatives of the Society of Otolaryngology, Audiology and Phoniatrics, Neonatology, Paediatrics and Gynecology, recommendations for the implementation of uniform, effective and efficient national hearing screening protocols. Allow us to respect the timing of identification and early intervention, to reduce program costs and parental anxiety. Furthermore – concludes Bubbico -, in order to have standardized and homogeneous data, INAP is committed to facing the current challenges related to technological innovation in healthcare, with the development of Big data technologies and methodologies and their processing through artificial intelligence algorithms and new digital infrastructures for modern data communication. This technological innovation will allow for timely checks to ensure quality services and early intervention for all born.
The damage from exposure to occupational noise
Returning to World Day, the 2021 Report highlighted the control of noise one of the seven key interventions on hearing and underlined the importance of mitigating exposure to loud noise. Including those at work. Up to the 2000s, hearing loss caused by exposure to occupational noise represented the first cause of illness among workers in many European countries, including Italy – underlines Luciano Bubbico -. Hearing loss is very often accompanied by bilateral and continuous tinnitus (perception of buzzing)which often represent the disability most reported by subjects. The workers most at risk they are those in the manufacturing sector, in transport, in the mining industry, in construction, in agriculture and in the military. In Italy in recent years, thanks to the prevention activities supported by Inail, there has been a gradual decline from 2,730 confirmed positive cases in 2011 to 1,923 confirmed positive cases in 2016.
March 2, 2022 (change March 2, 2022 | 20:09)
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