Universal neonatal hearing screening before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To verify the frequency of risk factors for hearing loss in newborns and their possible associations with universal neonatal hearing screening results before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Historical cohort study with data analysis of newborns attended in a reference hearing health service of the Unified Health System (SUS) between January 2017 and December 2021. Those born in 2020 and 2021 were 91% less likely to fail the screening than those born in 2017, 2018, and 2019; therefore, they had a lower percentage of referrals for a retest. There was a decrease in congenital syphilis (1.00%), decrease in HIV (0.95%), and an increase in toxoplasmosis (0.58%) and increase in rubella cases in 2021 in relation to 2017. Syphilis had lower frequency rates during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Newborns born in the pandemic year compared to those born pre-pandemic showed a reduction in the presence of two risk indicators for hearing loss and, consequently, a lower chance of failing the UNHS and a lower percentage of referral for retest.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.