Universal neonatal hearing screening program in Shanghai, China: An inter-regional and international comparison

Characteristics of the Frequency-Following Response to Speech in Neonates and Potential Applicability in Clinical Practice: A Systematic Review

Purpose We sought to critically analyze and evaluate published evidence regarding feasibility and clinical potential for predicting neurodevelopmental outcomes of the frequency-following responses (FFRs) to speech recordings in neonates (birth to 28 days). Method A systematic search of MeSH terms in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied HealthLiterature, Embase, Google Scholar, Ovid Medline (R) and E-Pub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations and Daily, Web of Science, SCOPUS, COCHRANE Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov was performed. Manual review of all items identified in the search was performed by two independent reviewers. Articles were evaluated based on the level of methodological quality and evidence according to the RTI item bank. Results Seven articles met inclusion criteria. None of the included studies reported neurodevelopmental outcomes past 3 months of age. Quality of the evidence ranged from moderate to high. Protocol variations were frequent. Conclusions Based on this systematic review, the FFR to speech can capture both temporal and spectral acoustic features in neonates. It can accurately be recorded in a fast and easy manner at the infant's bedside. However, at this time, further studies are needed to identify and validate which FFR features could be incorporated as an addition to standard evaluation of infant sound processing evaluation in subcortico-cortical networks. This review identifies the need for further research focused on identifying specific features of the neonatal FFRs, those with predictive value for early childhood outcomes to help guide targeted early speech and hearing interventions.

Maternal education and newborn thyroid-stimulating hormone level in a congenital hypothyroidism screening program

Objective: To examine the relationship between neonatal thyroid function and the formal education of mothers.Study design: Participants came from a population-based congenital hypothyroidism (CH) screening program in Tianjin, China.Methods: Of 66,390 registered births in 2015, 60,568 mothers and newborns had complete data. Mothers were categorized into one of four categories based on their educational attainment: (a) midschool or less; (b) high school or equivalent; (c) university; or (d) post graduate. Newborn thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level was measured on day 3-7. Two neonatal groups were created using cutoffs of TSH > 10 μIU/ml and TSH > 20 μIU/ml. Odds ratios (OR) for CH risk by maternal education were estimated from logistic regression models after adjusting for potential confounders.Results: For TSH > 10 μIU/ml, the screen positive incidence rate for CH was 1:201 or 4.98 per 1000 births; for TSH > 20 μIU/ml, the incidence rate was 1:2222 or 0.45 per 1000 births. Screen positive incidence rates decreased with increasing maternal education level. Compared to mothers with a postgraduate education, the ORs (95% CI) for midschool or less, high school or equivalent, and university were 2.09 (1.08, 4.04), 1.45 (0.73, 2.90), and 1.61 (0.85, 3.06) using a cutoff of TSH > 10 μIU/ml. At the higher cutoff of TSH > 20 μIU/ml ORs (95% CI) for midschool or less and high school or equivalent were 3.05 (1.20,7.74) and 3.34 (1.24, 8.97), when compared to a composite reference category of university and postgraduate level education.Conclusion: Maternal education is inversely related to neonatal thyroid function though the mechanism remains unexplained.