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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1364226
This article is part of the Research Topic World Health Day 2023: Progress and New Perspectives in Achieving ‘Health For All’ View all 8 articles

Cost-effectiveness of Portable-Automated ABR for Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening in India

Provisionally accepted
Krushna Chandra Sahoo Krushna Chandra Sahoo 1Rinshu Dwivedi Rinshu Dwivedi 1Dr Ramesh Athe Dr Ramesh Athe 1Akshay Chauhan Akshay Chauhan 2Shalu Jain Shalu Jain 2Rakesh Kumar Sahoo Rakesh Kumar Sahoo 1DEBDUTTA BHATTACHARYA DEBDUTTA BHATTACHARYA 1Kavitha Rajsekhar Kavitha Rajsekhar 2Sanghamitra Pati Sanghamitra Pati 1*
  • 1 Regional Medical Research Center (ICMR), Bhubaneswar, India
  • 2 Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, Delhi, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The World Health Organization considers Universal Neonatal Hearing Screening (UNHS) essential to global public health. Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram has included newborn hearing screening in India since 2013. The programme faces human, infrastructure, and equipment shortages. First-line hearing screening with improved diagnostic accuracy is needed. The Portable Automated Auditory Brainstem Responses (P-AABR) can be used in remote areas for UNHS due to its low infrastructure needs and diagnostic accuracy. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of P-AABR in UNHS. We employed an analytical model based on decision trees to assess the cost-effectiveness of Otoacoustic Emission (OAE) and P-AABR. The total cost to the health system for P-AABR, regardless of true positive cases, is INR 10,535,915, while OAE costs INR 7,256,198. P-AABR detects 262 cases, whereas OAE detects 26 cases. Portable Automated ABR costs INR 97 per case detection, while OAE costs INR 67. The final ICER was 97407.69. The P-AABR device is cost-effective, safe and feasible for UNHS Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) programmes. Beyond reducing false referrals and parent indirect costs, it detects more hearing-impaired infants. Even in shortages of skilled workers, existing staff can be trained. Thus, this study suggests integrating this device into community and primary health centres to expand UNHS coverage.

    Keywords: Digital Health, hearing impairment, Newborn, Universal hearing screening, Hearing Loss

    Received: 01 Jan 2024; Accepted: 29 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sahoo, Dwivedi, Athe, Chauhan, Jain, Sahoo, BHATTACHARYA, Rajsekhar and Pati. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sanghamitra Pati, Regional Medical Research Center (ICMR), Bhubaneswar, India

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