Triagem auditiva em crianças nascidas durante a pandemia de Covid-19 em Fortaleza (Ce).

Abstract

Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) aims to identify hearing impairments early, allowing access to information and support necessary to prevent delays in language acquisition and development due to hearing loss. During the COVID-19 pandemic, declared in March 2020 by the World Health Organization, pregnant women were exposed to a viral infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, belonging to a family of coronaviruses responsible for causing respiratory syndromes. Viral infections, such as cytomegalovirus, rubella, and measles, can damage the structures of the fetus's inner ear and/or induce immune-mediated damage in the host. Since COVID-19 is a viral disease, it was speculated whether it could also affect the inner ear structures and have negative consequences for the hearing health of these babies. The objective of this study was to characterize the findings of neonatal hearing screening performed on newborns and infants during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative study was conducted. Participants in this study were 3,655 babies born in Fortaleza (CE), who underwent the hearing screening test at the Early Treatment and Stimulation Center (NUTEP) between January 2020 and December 2022. Data collection was performed by consulting the audiology service database. The data were transferred from Microsoft Excel® to Stata/IC 16.0 software, and Fisher's exact test and chi-square test were applied to analyze the association between risk factors and the aforementioned outcomes. For binary outcomes, logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the Odds Ratio. Of the 125 newborns whose mothers had COVID-19 during pregnancy, 88.8% did not have a Risk Indicator for Hearing Impairment (RIH) and presented normal test results. Of the 12 babies with COVID-19 during pregnancy and RIH, 58.3% presented normal results. The most prevalent risk factor among the 9 identified in the study was a stay in the Neonatal ICU for more than five days, with a relevance of 7%. The findings of this study indicate that maternal COVID-19 infection during pregnancy, in isolation, did not constitute a significant risk factor for hearing impairments detected in newborn hearing screening, but when combined with other risk factors it may increase the likelihood of hearing impairments detected by the newborn hearing screening test. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) under approval number 7.681.483 and CAEE number 88698825.2.0000.5050.