[Controlling retests in a universal hearing screening program].
INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the influence of several factors in the need for retesting in the first stage of a universal auditory screening program, a prospective and statistic study is presented, specially remarking the differences found between two health systems (public and private). PATIENTS AND METHODS: 18,073 children born in the 1999-2004 period were included in the study, in the context of a universal screening protocol based on Otoacoustic emissions and ABR, and distributed into three groups depending on their place of birth (A: public hospital; B: private hospital; C: children from other region). RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the groups (7.3% retesting in the public system and 2.4% in the private), explained by the fact that in the first group the test was performed in 74.9% of cases within 3 days after birth (when the need for repetition was 7,7%), and in the other groups the exploration was delayed up to 4-10 days in most cases (when retesting was performed only in 4.9%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Proportion of retesting in the first stage of a universal screening program is an important factor for the cost estimation of these protocols. We assume that the age at testing varies significantly this factor, and on the contrary, we know that precocious exploration (before the child leaves the hospital) increases the program covering. Therefore we conclude that the test should be delayed only in health systems needing to save resources or not able to test before discharge, and not in those wanting to guarantee the maximum covering.