Knowledge, perception, and satisfaction of postpartum women about newborn hearing screening in two private Brazilian maternity hospitals.

Purpose: To assess the knowledge, perception, and satisfaction of postpartum women about newborn hearing screening and investigate factors associated with lack of knowledge about the test.

Methods: Cross-sectional analytical study conducted in two private Brazilian maternity hospitals. Participants were postpartum women with newborn infants eligible for hearing screening. After the hearing test, they answered an anonymous written questionnaire to assess their knowledge about, perception of, and satisfaction with the test. The characteristics of participants with and without knowledge about the test were compared using the Chi-square test. Variables with P <0.20 were included in the logistic regression.

Results: The study included 470 postpartum women (74.1% had a university degree). Nearly 42% (n=195) had no prior knowledge about the test. Among those with prior knowledge, the main sources of information were having a previous child who had undergone the test (50.5%), and family/friends (26.2%). Primiparity (aOR 5.01, 95% CI 3.27-7.69), lack of information about the test during antenatal care (aOR 3.67, 95% CI 2.01-6.70), and no family member with hearing loss (aOR 2.00, 95% CI 1.16-3.47) were variables associated with the lack of knowledge about the test. Almost all participants (98.7%) perceived the test as very important, and 94.3% were totally satisfied with it.

Conclusion: Even though newborn hearing screening became mandatory in Brazil over a decade ago, a large proportion of postpartum women in two private hospitals had no prior knowledge about the test. However, the vast majority perceive the test as very important and are highly satisfied with it.