Modelling the cost-effectiveness of a newborn hearing screening programme; usability and pitfalls

Abstract

Objective

The EUSCREEN project concerns the study of European vision and hearing screening programmes. Part of the project was the development of a cost-effectiveness model to analyse such programmes. We describe the development and usability of an online tool to enable stakeholders to design, analyse or modify a newborn hearing screening (NHS) programme.

Design

Data from literature, from existing NHS programmes, and observations by users were used to develop and refine the tool. Required inputs include prevalence of the hearing impairment, test sequence and its timing, attendance, sensitivity, and specificity of each screening step. Outputs include the number of cases detected and the costs of screening and diagnostics.

Study sample

Eleven NHS programmes with reliable data.

Results

Three analyses are presented, exploring the effect of low attendance, number of screening steps, testing in the maternity ward, or screening at a later age, on the benefits and costs of the programme. Knowledge of the epidemiology of a staged screening programme is crucial when using the tool.

Conclusions

This study presents a tool intended to aid stakeholders to design a new or analyse an existing hearing screening programme in terms of benefits and costs.

Keywords:

• Newborn hearing screening
• cost-effectiveness
• modelling
• online tool
• preventive health care

Acknowledgement

We thank Dennis van Aken for the development of the IT infrastructure and the design of the webtool, and Bert van Zanten for sharing his extensive knowledge of newborn hearing screening with us.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 733352.