OBJECTIVES This study describes screen refusal and follow-up default characteristics together with caregiver reasons for screen refusal and follow-up default in two South African universal newborn hearing screening programs. METHODS A retrospective record review of universal newborn hearing screening conducted at two hospitals (Hospital A n = 954 infants; Hospital B n = 2135) over a 31-33 mon...

At birth, patient demographic and health information begin to accumulate in varied databases. There are often multiple sources of the same or similar data. New public health programs are often created without considering data linkages. Recently, newborn hearing screening (NHS) programs and immunization programs have virtually ignored the existence of newborn dried blood spot (DBS) newborn scree...