This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

The aim of this report was to evaluate the benefits and harms of UNHS in the detection of hearing impairment.

UNHS can improve the chances that a child with congenital hearing impairment is diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage. It cannot be certainly inferred from the studies available what consequences this has for the development of these children. There are indications (not evidence) that children with hearing impairment identified by UNHS have advantages in language development. The comparison between children treated earlier vs. those treated later also provides indications that children with earlier treatment may have advantages in language development. It is insufficiently investigated how newborn hearing screening affects other outcomes relevant to the children, such as quality of life, development at school, and occupational or social situation. Programmes should therefore be designed in such a way that their quality and the consequences for the children affected can be reliably determined.