Turkey

Turkey=

• Percent of children screened for hearing loss:
• Incidence of permanent hearing loss among newborns:

Current Status of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention for Children

Congenital hearing loss is a serious and one of the most common major abnormality present at birth. Bilateral hearing loss is present in 0.1–0.3% of newborn infants and in 2–4% of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) population (National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference 1993; Yoon et al. 2003). The detection of congenital hearing loss, its early diagnosis and rehabilitation programmes have potent effects on childrens’ speech, communication, language and cognitive development (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing 1994). Therefore, universal neonatal hearing screening programmes are encouraged to define and manage hearing loss in early ages of life (National Institutes of Health 1993). Pediatric Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH) reflected that infants with hearing loss should be recognized before 3 months of age in 1994 (American Academy of Pediatrics 1995). The JCIH assigned principles and guidelines for the detection of early hearing screening in the position statement of the year 2000 (Joint Committee on Infant Hearing 2000). National neonatal hearing screening programme was started to be applied in Turkey on 2004. Because of the technical difficulties and lack of educated personel, this programme was started not in whole country but only on some pilot hospitals including the Ankara Etlik Zubeyde Hanim Maternity and Women’s Health Research Hospital. The screening programme has three steps; covering both the response techniques of TEOAE and ABR. Using a combination of screening techniques (TEOAE testing for the initial screening followed by automated ABR for rescreening) decrease the fail rate at discharge and the subsequent need for outpatient follow-up (Tang et al. 2006). At Ankara Etlik Zubeyde Hanim Maternity and Women’s Health Research Hospital the national neonatal hearing screening programme compatible to universal newborn hearing screening programmes was started on January 2007. The aim of this study was to introduce a 14-month three-step newborn hearing screening programme results with 16 975 births.

Demograpgics

• Population: 81,619,392 (July 2014 est.)
• Number of Annual Births (2012 est): 1,238,970
• Birth rate: 17.2 live births per 1 000 population
• Percent of GDP spent on health care (2011): 6.7%
• Percent of Health Care expenditures spent by government: 75%
• Physician density: 1.71 physicians/1,000 population (2011)
• Percent of newborns attended by skilled providers: 91%
• Infant Mortality: 23.7 (2012).
• Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write): 95.3%
• Percent of children screened for hearing loss: under 25%
• Incidence of permanent hearing loss among newborns: 19.5 per 1000 infants

Publications about EHDI Programs in Turkey

1. Bolat, H., Bebitoglu, F.G., Ozbas, S., Altunsu, A.T., and Kose, M.R. 2009. National newborn hearing and screening program in Turkey: Struggles and implementations between 2004 and 2008. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 73 (12):1621-2163.
2. Genç GA, Konukseven O, Muluk NB, Kirkim G, Başar FS, Tuncer U, Kayikci MK, Bolat H, Topcu C, Dizdar HT, Kaynar F, Akar F, Ozdek A, Serbetcioglu B, Belgin E. Features of unilateral hearing loss detected by newborn hearing screening programme in different regions of Turkey. Auris Nasus Larynx. 2013 Jun;40(3):251-9.
3. Tasci Y, Muderris II, Erkaya S, Altinbas S, Yucel H, Haberal A. Newborn hearing screening programme outcomes in a research hospital from Turkey. Child Care Health Dev. 2010 May;36(3):317-22.
4. Kirkim G, Serbetcioglu B, Erdag TK, Ceryan K. The frequency of auditory neuropathy detected by universal newborn hearing screening program. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2008 Oct;72(10):1461-9.

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