The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on screening for childhood hearing impairment in the Brazilian National Health System
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Abstract
Introduction: The pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted public health in several areas and also seems to extend to the detection of childhood hearing impairment. Programs to identify deaf and hearing-impaired children must be carefully analyzed to mitigate possible future consequences. Objective: To assess the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on the number of infant hearing screening procedures performed by the Brazilian National Health System in 2020. Methods: Cross-sectional evaluation, using the DATASUS database, comparing the number of examinations performed in children in the year 2019 to
the year 2020. The non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Rank test (a=0.05) was used for statistical analysis. The number of cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants in the states was obtained from the Coronavirus Brazil panel. Results: A 16% decrease was observed in the sum of all hearing detection and screening procedures evaluated (p <0.001), ranging from -9% to -24% (p <0.001). Statistically significant reduction was observed among the states of the federation. Schoolchild hearing screening was the procedure with the greatest variation, with a decrease of over 85% (p <0.001) in most macro-regions of the country.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic statistically reduced the number of actions related to screening and early identification of hearing impairments in 2020.
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