Mothers’ adherence to a hearing and language development follow-up program

Abstract

Introduction: To analyze the use of strategies for adherence of mothers of infants with risk indicators for hearing loss of late onset to a hearing and language development  program; to know the profile of mothers, the difficulties and the reasons for their adherence to the Program. Methods: Transversal study using quantitative and qualitative analysis. The data have been collected throughout the records of the infants and semi structuralized interviews. The strategies used were a folder about hearing and language development and phone calls. Results: We studied data from 464 files whose infants came to the assessment in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and 53 mothers decided to participate in the research. The majority of mothers was housewives, completed high school, had no job, lived with a partner; in the city of the study. Fifteen mothers (32,5%) had difficulties to come to the institution due to the distance between their home and the institution, the schedule of the evaluation, dismissal of the work, the need of taking care of other children. The main reasons for adherence were: concern about the infant hearing, presence of risk indicator and scheduled return. Conclusion: It is possible to increase adherence of mothers using some strategies to make them to remember the day of the assessment and the importance to evaluate the child. The answers of the mothers showed their interest in participating and following the orientations. It is necessary that professionals help families, clarifying, creating and motivating them to actively participate in the follow up process.