New Study Findings from Hallym University Illuminate Research in Public Health (Analysis of Newborn Hearing Screening Results in South Korea after National Health Insurance Coverage: A Nationwide Population-Based Study): Health and Medicine – Public Health

2022 DEC 09 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Data detailed on public health have been presented. According to news reporting originating from Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Newborn hearing screening (NHS) has been covered by national health insurance since October 2018 in Korea.”

Financial supporters for this research include Hallym University; Ministry of Health And Welfare’s Childbirth Policy Division.

The news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Hallym University: “However, the results of the NHS are not reported due to the absence of a follow-up tracking system. This study analyzed the status and the predicted referral rates of NHS after the Korean national health insurance coverage by analyzing the National Health Insurance Service database in 2019 and 2020. The NHS coverage was 91.7% of total birth in 2019 and 92.1% in 2020. The predicted referral rate of NHS calculated by the duplicated NHS cases was 1.05% in 2019 and 0.99% in 2020. However, another predicted referral rate calculated by the number of diagnostic auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) performed was 1.44% in 2019 and 1.43% in 2020. The first NHS was performed within one day of birth for 96.5% of the babies and within three days of birth for 97%.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “However, diagnostic ABR was adequately performed within three months of birth for only 4.3%, while 82.3% performed the test after six months which delays appropriate intervention for hearing loss. National support such as national coordinators, follow-up tracking, and data management systems are needed for early hearing detection and intervention of newborns and infants in Korea.”

For more information on this research see: Analysis of Newborn Hearing Screening Results in South Korea after National Health Insurance Coverage: A Nationwide Population-Based Study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2022,19(15052):15052. (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph). The publisher for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is MDPI AG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215052.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Kyu Young Choi, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University, Seoul 07441, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Su-Kyoung Park, Sun Choi, Jiwon Chang.

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