Sociodemographic profile of mothers asmitted to a service of newborn hearing sccreening

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the sociodemographic profile of mothers of newborns who participated in the Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS), at a University Hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, as well as to identify the mothers’ knowledge about the NHS. Method: The study was achieved at the NHS service of the mentioned hospital, from April 2011 to December 2011. The number of mothers who answered prenatally the questionnaire of demographic investigation was 1022. They answered questions regarding their knowledge about NHS. Results: The mothers’ average age was 26 years old. In relation to education, 32.19 % completed high school, 27.79 % presented incomplete elementary school and 3.03 % completed graduation degree. About occupation, 52.05% referred being house wives. About marital status, 57.24 % of the mothers were single, 30.57 % were married, 8.40 % presented common-law marriage and 3.72 % were widows or divorced; 63.57% of mothers did monthly prenatal exams and 1.86 % did not. From these mothers, 54.21 % have more than one child, and from them, 39.8 performed NHS with their other children; 47.85 % obtained knowledge about NHS after the last child’s birth, 33.86 % were informed by the Pediatrician and 34.24% by the Nurses. Conclusion: The main sociodemographic characteristics of this study were: young adult mothers, with complete high school, house wives, single, and with more than one child. Most of them performed prenatal, but the information about NHS was given to them at the hospital, right after their children were born. The identification of these characteristics is important to direct the actions by the Speech Therapy in Primary Health Care, improving the structuring of the Hearing Health Program in the studied region.