Pediatric Quality Measures in Hearing Screening and Follow-Up.

Abstract

Quality measures are needed to ensure that children receive timely screening and follow-up for hearing problems. To summarize pediatric quality measures for hearing screening and follow-up. We searched PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO from 2009 to December 7, 2024, including gray literature from governmental and nongovernmental entities. Systematic reviews, original articles. Measure definitions, study characteristics, barriers, and research gaps. We identified 27 hearing screening and 97 follow-up measures, mostly applied to newborns. In total, 9 systematic reviews identified 5 screening and 10 follow-up measures, 13 studies identified 13 screening and 47 follow-up measures, and 12 gray literature sources identified 11 screening and 42 follow-up measures. We found evidence for reliability, validity, usability, and feasibility in 8, 11, 3, and 4 screening measures, respectively, and for 22, 44, 17, and 13 follow-up measures, respectively. Of the follow-up measures, 14 had evidence against feasibility. Additionally, 8 screening and 8 follow-up measures demonstrated improvement in quality-of-care outcomes. Use of measures differed by state, targeted population, and clinician type. Barriers to measure implementation were related to data infrastructure, integration, collection, reporting, and lack of standardization. Searches focused on identifying measures used in the United States. Studies were not designed to assess measure characteristics. Many pediatric hearing screening and follow-up measures have evidence of reliability, validity, and usability, although feasibility of follow-up measures is a concern. Future research should evaluate data infrastructure and systems for implementing follow-up and standardizing and stratifying screening and follow-up measures.