Purpose: Hearing loss is a prevalent condition among older adults. Structural changes at the auditory periphery, changes in central audition and cognitive function are all known to influence speech understanding in older adults. Biological aging also alters speech and voice characteristics from the age of 50 years. These changes are likely to reduce the clarity of speech signals received by older adults with age-related hearing loss. Recent findings suggest that older adults with hearing loss subjectively find listening to the speech of other older adults more effortful than listening to the speech of younger adults. However, the observations of listener effort were subjective and follow up using an objective measure was recommended. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of speaker age (young versus older) on speech understanding and listener effort in older adults with hearing loss. In addition, the relationships between these parameters, and age and working memory was investigated. It is hypothesised that older adults with hearing loss will recognise less speech, and expend more effort, while listening to speech of an older adult relative to a younger adult. Method: A dual task paradigm was used to measure speech understanding and listening effort in 18 older adult listeners with hearing loss. The primary task involved recognition of target words in sentences containing either high or low contextual cues. The secondary task required listeners to memorise the target words for later recall following a set length of sentences. Listeners performed speech understanding (primary task) under six experimental conditions: For each speaker (i.e., older adult and younger adult) there were 3 listening backgrounds: quiet, and noise at 0 dB SNR and +5 dB SNR. Results: Speech understanding in older adults with hearing loss was significantly improved when the speaker was an older adult, especially in noise. The ability to recall words from memory was also significantly better when the speaker was an older adult. Age was strongly correlated with speech understanding with contributions from hearing loss. Age and working memory had moderate correlations with word recall. Conclusion: The findings provide further evidence that peripheral hearing loss is not the only contributor to speech understanding and word recall ability in older adults. The naturally occurring speech signal also has the potential to influence speech understanding and listening effort in older adults.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2004. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Noise exposure is a common hazard to workforce in general although at varying degrees depending on the occupation, as many workers are exposed for long periods of time to potentially hazardous noise. Every year, twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise at work. In 2015 U.S. businesses paid over $1.5 million in penalties for not protecting workers from noise. (OSHA, 2016). There may be a direct or indirect consequence of the possibilities of overexposure to noise notwithstanding the compulsory hearing protection requests for the occupations with potential hazards, and these exposures usually arise from the various types of heavy repair equipment and tools related to the job functions. In the United States ten million people have noise related hearing loss (CDC, 2016) and damage done to the ear is not noticed until earing diminishes significantly. One of the noisiest occupations there are include the flight ground crews and flight maintenance personnel otherwise categorized as Ground Operation Workers. These categories of workers have varying functions in the noisiest area at the ramp, and this exposes them to noise that could lead to hearing impairment or permanent ear damage. This study was focused on workers on the ramps at the international airport of a large US city. These workers also are known as ground handling staff, and these employees perform different tasks on the airline ramp, which include unloading luggage from the airline, picking up and moving luggage from the belt room, and to loading baggage onto the airline. This study was conducted using personal dosimeters which were calibrated before and after each sampling event out on four different employees over a period of four days and the collected data were downloaded to a personal computer for further analysis. From the results of this study, the highest noise exposures occurred on a ground operation worker 3 (GOW3) with an 8-hr TWA exposure of 85.6 dBA using OSHA PEL measurement specifications and this occurred on the fourth day of sampling which was a Saturday. The second highest exposure occurred on ground operation worker 1 (GOW1) on the fourth day with an 8-hr TWA exposure of 85.0 dBA. For ground operations worker 2 (GOW2) and ground operation worker 4 (GOW4), the highest exposure occurred on the second day with 79.8 dBA and 73.4 dBA as their time weighted averages, respectively. None of the workers exposures exceeded the OSHA permissible exposure limit of 90 dBA. The United States Navy uses the OSHA noise standard to evaluate noise exposure on ships and all Navy installations. According to University of South Florida institutional review Board, this study is categorized as a program evaluation that has no intervention with human subjects. The workers that participated in this study did so voluntarily.

D-methionine (D-met) has demonstrated otoprotection from noise-, aminoglycoside-, and cisplatin-induced hearing loss in animal studies. As a result, D-met is currently progressing through translational "bench to bedside" research. However, D-met's exact otoprotective mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. This study investigated relationships between dose- and time-dependent D-met otoprotection from noise- and aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss. Further, the study correlated protective D-met dose to endogenous antioxidant enzyme activity and lipid peroxidation. Specific aim 1 tested D-met dose response protection by auditory brainstem response (ABR) threshold shift analysis and outer hair cell (OHC) quantification. D-met doses ranging from 25-200 mg/kg/dose were administered to chinchillas every 12 hours five times each before and after steady state noise exposure totaling 10 D-met doses. Results demonstrated optimal, sub-optimal, and supra-optimal bi-phasic D-met otoprotective dose response. Optimal D-met protection from steady state noise occurred at the 50 mg/kg/dose level. OHC quantification confirmed electrophysiological assessment. Specific aim 2 measured D-met rescue protection from steady state noise exposure by ABR threshold shift analysis and OHC quantification. Five intraperitoneal (ip) D-met injections were administered every 12 hours beginning 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, or 48 hours after steady state noise exposure. Results measured full D-met protection when administration began as late as 24 hours after noise secession. Significant partial protection was also measured for the 36 hour delay. OHC quantification confirmed electrophysiological assessment. Specific aim 3 measured D-met preloading protection from steady state noise exposure by ABR threshold shift analysis and OHC quantification. Five ip D-met injections were administered every 12 hours beginning 2, 2.5, or 3 days prior to steady state noise exposure. Results measured significant D-met protection when administration ended as early as 24 hours prior to noise exposure. OHC quantification confirmed electrophysiological assessment. Specific aim 4 tested dose-dependent D-met influence on antioxidant enzyme activity and oxidative stress in steady state noise-exposed chinchillas. One ip D-met injection, ranging from 25 to 200 mg/kg/dose, was administered every 12 hours beginning 2 days prior to steady state noise exposure for a total of 5 injections. Two hours post-noise exposure, animals were sacrificed and serum, liver, and cochleae were collected for endogenous antioxidant analysis. Glutaredoxin 2 (Grx2) was also analyzed 21 days post-noise exposure. Lower D-met doses (25 and 50 mg/kg/dose) increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activity. Glutathione reductase and glutathione peroxidase activities significantly increased with D-met doses but only at high concentrations (200 mg/kg/dose). At 21 days post-noise, Grx2 activity was significantly decreased in liver but greatly increased in the cochlea with high D-met doses (200 mg/kg/dose). The endogenous enzyme studies suggest optimal protective D-met dose determined in specific aims 1 through 3 may be secondary to increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activity which may result from D-met's free radical scavenging characteristics. Glutathione pathway activity increased only with high D-met doses that resulted in less optimal protection in specific aim 1. Thus, D-met-induced glutathione pathway enhancement may be a compensatory or saturation mechanism rather than the primary protective mechanism. Further, the extended pre-loading and rescue protection may be a result of significantly increased s-glutathionylation activity in the cochlea. Specific aim 5 tested D-met protection from impulse noise exposures. D-met dose response, rescue, and antioxidant enzyme assay protocols, similar to those in specific aims 1, 3, and 4 in steady state animals, were performed on impulse noise-exposed chinchillas. D-met provided dose- and time-dependent optimal protection from impulse noise similar to the steady-state noise studies. Optimal D-met protection was measured at the 100 mg/kg/dose level with complete rescue protection as late as 24 hours post-noise exposure. Endogenous enzyme activity measures demonstrated significant superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase activity increases which correlated with optimal D-met protective dose (100 mg/kg/dose) and catalase and superoxide dismutase activity decreases at the higher doses (200 mg/kg/dose). Specific aim 6 tested dose-dependent D-met protection from tobramycin, amikacin, kanamycin, and gentamicin aminoglycoside antibiotics. Guinea pig animal models were normalized to achieve a 30-40 dB ABR threshold shift with the lowest possible aminoglycoside dose. D-met and the aforementioned single aminoglycoside were administered for 21, 28, 23, or 14 days, respectively. ABRs were collected and assessed at baseline, 2, 4, and 6 weeks after drug administration initiation. After the 6-week ABR data collection, cochleae were collected and prepared for OHC quantification. ABR threshold shifts and OHC quantifications demonstrate significant bi-phasic D-met-induced protection from each aminoglycoside type with different D-met doses. OHC quantification confirmed electrophysiological assessment. This study identified optimal protective D-met dose for aminoglycoside- and noise- induced ototoxicity. It also identified optimal protective D-met dose timing for steady state and impulse noise-induced hearing loss. Further, this study has identified dose-dependent D-met-induced endogenous antioxidant changes and Grx2 enhancement, and therefore s-glutathionylation, as a potential mechanism for D-met protection. Thus, dose- and time-dependent D-met protection influences endogenous antioxidant activity, but exact optimal D-met protection will continue to warrant further investigation.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:49:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-01-26 / Objetivo: Avaliar a competência de leitura de alunos surdos inclusos em escolas da rede regular de ensino municipal. Métodos: estudo observacional analítico realizado com 35 alunos com perda auditiva neurossensorial de grau variado, com e sem apoio pedagógico e 71 ouvintes pareados por idade e série. Todos os sujeitos foram submetidos ao Teste de Competência de Leitura de Palavras –TCLP 1.2, Teste de Nomeação de Figuras por Escolha de Palavras – TFN 1.1 e Teste de Competência de Leitura de Sentenças – TCLS 1.2 Resultados: Os alunos surdos inclusos na rede regular de ensino obtiveram resultados diferenciados dos alunos ouvintes. No teste de Competência de Leitura de Palavras –TCLP, os ouvintes obtiveram média de acerto de 84,5%, enquanto os alunos surdos obtiveram 68,8% de acerto (p=<0,001). Em relação ao teste de Nomeação de Figuras por Escolha-TFN, apresentou-se a seguinte média de acerto: ouvintes 91,6%, alunos surdos 73% (p=<0,001). Quanto ao Teste de Competência de Leitura de Sentenças-TCLS, os ouvintes obtiveram média de 75,7% e os surdos 42,9% (p=<0,001). Não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre alunos surdos que frequentam sala de apoio e acompanhamento à inclusão e surdos que frequentam somente a classe regular (p=<0,001). Conclusões: os alunos ouvintes apresentam diferença significante na competência de leitura nos três testes apresentados, comparados aos surdos. Esse resultado aponta para uma falha na educação desses alunos no ensino regular. / Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of reading in hearing impaired or deaf students included in schools of the local regular education network. Methods: analytical observational study conducted with 35 students with sensorineural hearing loss of varying degree, with and without teaching aids, and 71 age- and series-matched listeners. All subjects underwent the Competence Test of Words Reading-TCLP 1.2, Picture Naming Test by Choice of Words-TFN 1.1 and Competence Test of Sentence Reading-SRT 1.2. Results: The deaf or hearing impaired students included in regular education network obtained different results listener students. In the test of Competence Test of Words Reading-TCLP, listeners obtained an average hit rate of 84.5%, while the deaf students obtained 68.8% of accuracy (p=<0,001). Regarding to the Picture Naming Test by Choice of Words-TFN, following average accuracy was observed: 91.6% for listeners, hearing impaired or deaf, 73%(p=<0,001). As for the Competence Test of Sentence Reading-TCLS, listeners achieved an average of 75.7% and the hearing impaired or deaf, 42.9% (p=<0,001). There was no statistically significant difference between deaf and hearing impaired students who attend the support and follow-up class at inclusion and the hearing impaired or deaf students in regular classes only (p=<0,001). Conclusions: The hearing students showed significant difference in reading competence in the three tests presented compared with deaf or hearing impaired ones. We can assert that the hearing students have a good rating on levels of correlation, while the deaf show regular classification. This result points to a failure in the education of the latter in the regular education network. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

Submitted by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio (fiscina@bahia.fiocruz.br) on 2015-06-16T14:06:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Cibele Gomes Bicalho Avaliação...2015.pdf: 1225744 bytes, checksum: 0e4067d0336141afabfd635be5750ec5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Maria Fiscina Sampaio (fiscina@bahia.fiocruz.br) on 2015-06-16T14:06:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Cibele Gomes Bicalho Avaliação...2015.pdf: 1225744 bytes, checksum: 0e4067d0336141afabfd635be5750ec5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-16T14:06:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cibele Gomes Bicalho Avaliação...2015.pdf: 1225744 bytes, checksum: 0e4067d0336141afabfd635be5750ec5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Centro de Pesquisas Gonçalo Moniz. Salvador, BA, Brasil / Introdução: Mucopolissacaridose (MPS) é um conjunto de doenças raras causadas pela deficiência de enzimas lisossômicas levando ao acúmulo de glicosaminoglicanos (GAG) em órgãos e tecidos, responsáveis pelo quadro clínico multissistêmico, crônico e progressivo. O comprometimento auditivo é frequente. Objetivo: Avaliar manifestações auditivas de pacientes com MPS. Metodologia: Estudo descritivo, série de casos do comprometimento auditivo de pacientes com MPS. Foi realizada avaliação retrospectiva através de revisão de prontuário e avaliação prospectiva de dezembro de 2012 a outubro de 2014. Foram analisados a primeira e a última avaliação otorrinolaringológica (ORL) e audiológica realizada. Resultados: A principal queixa auditiva foi a hipoacusia. Aperdaauditiva estava presente em quase todos os pacientes, sendo que a perda auditiva condutiva foi a mais frequente, especialmente nos pacientes com MPS VI. Conclusão: A perda auditiva é muito frequente em pacientes com MPS, devendo o acompanhamento audiológicoser realizado precocemente. / Introduction: Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) is a set of rare diseases caused by deficiency of lysosomal enzymes leading to accumulation of glicosaminoglicanos (GAG) in tissues and organs responsible for the multisystemic clinical, chronic and progressive symptons. Objective: Todescribe the profile of otorhinolaryngological clinical examination and audiology tests of patients with MPS disease. Methods:Study of case series. The evaluation was performed, at the beginning, in 31 patients with MPS I, II, IIIA, IV and VI. Results: The most common hearing complaint was hearing loss and it was confirmed by audiology tests in almost 100% of patients, mostly with condutive hearing loss. Conclusions: It is important to evaluate the complaints, physical examination and audiology tests in MPS disease. Otorhinolaryngologist should be part of professional group that follow these patients in order to better monitor their hearing and provide early hearing rehabilitation.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-12-20Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:08:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 moreira_dtoc_me_botfm.pdf: 857123 bytes, checksum: 211a3514002e4229b7f57e353a2ac0f0 (MD5) / A deficiência auditiva é o déficit sensorial mais comum e tem dentre as suas diferentes etiologias as alterações genéticas. Mutações na conexina 26 são comuns, e uma mutação específica no gene GJB2 é a 35delG, a mais encontrada na deficiência auditiva hereditária não sindrômica. Investigar a ocorrência da mutação 35delG, em pacientes com deficiência auditiva sensorioneural não sindrômica (DASNNS) e de seus parentes em primeiro grau com o mesmo tipo de disacusia assim como naqueles com audição dentro dos padrões de normalidade. Participaram do estudo 72 indivíduos, atendidos no Serviço de Saúde Auditiva do Centro de Reabilitação dos Distúrbios da Audição e Comunicação (CERDAC), do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu‐ UNESP. Estes indivíduos foram divididos em três grupos ‐ Grupo A: 58 casos com DASNNS; Grupo B: 09 casos (parentes em primeiro grau do grupo A) com DASNNS e Grupo C: 05 indivíduos parentes em primeiro grau do grupo A com audição dentro dos padrões de normalidade. Todos foram submetidos à avaliação audiológica e investigação genética para o rastreamento da mutação 35delG. 67 casos apresentaram deficiência auditiva sensorioneural não sindrômica (DASNNS) ‐ Grupos A e B, e 05 indivíduos com audição dentro dos padrões de normalidade (Grupo C). Quanto às mutações 35delG encontradas, quatro foram mutações em heterozigose, três delas encontradas em uma mesma família: pai (38anos), mãe (28 anos) e filho (05 anos) afetados. Nesta família, os pais eram ouvintes normais e o filho apresentou DASNNS pré‐lingual de grau grave bilateral. A outra mutação em heterozigose foi encontrada em paciente do sexo feminino, 38 anos, com DASNNS pré‐lingual de grau moderado bilateral. A única mutação em homozigose foi em um paciente do sexo masculino... / Hearing impairment is the most common sensory deficit and has among its different etiologies the genetic disorders. Mutations in connexin 26 are common and a specific mutation in the gene GJB2 is the 35delG, the most commonly found in hereditary non‐syndromic deafness. To investigate the occurrence of the 35delG mutation in patients with non‐syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (NS‐SNHL) and their first‐degree relatives with the same type of hearing loss as well as those with normal hearing. The study included 72 patients from the Division of Hearing Health of the Hearing and Communication Disorders Rehabilitation Center (CERDAC), Botucatu Medical School Hospital, UNESP. These individuals were divided into three groups ‐ Group A: 58 cases with NS‐SNHL, Group B: 09 cases (first‐degree relatives of group A) with NS‐SNHL and Group C: 05 cases with normal hearing, first‐degree relatives of patients from group A. All patients were submitted to audiologic evaluation and genetic testing of the 35delG mutation. 67 patients had non‐syndromic sensorineural hearing loss (NS‐SNHL) ‐ Groups A and B, and 05 individuals had normal hearing (Group C). As for 35delG mutations found, four were heterozygous mutations, three of them found in the same family: father (38 years old), mother (28 years old) and son (05 years old) affected. In this family, the parents had normal hearing and the child had severe prelingual NS‐SNHL. The other heterozygous mutation was found in a female patient, 38 years old, with bilateral moderate pre‐lingual NS‐SNHL. A single homozygous mutation was found in a male patient, 20 years old, with a severe pre‐lingual SNHL in his right ear and a profound SNHL in his left ear. The study of the 35delG mutation was found to be easy to perform and inexpensive; it was possible to determine the... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-05-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:59:49Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cruz_ms_me_botfm.pdf: 444557 bytes, checksum: 9447fd5c86608b313ece989cfa8e4509 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Estimar a prevalência de deficiência auditiva na população urbana de Botucatu-SP e analisar as condições de vida e uso dos serviços de saúde das pessoas que relataram tal agravo. Análise do banco de dados pertencente ao estudo Saúde e Condição de Vida em São Paulo: Inquérito Multicêntrico de Saúde no Estado de São Paulo. ISA-SP (CESAR et al., 2005), um estudo epidemiológico de prevalência, realizado por meio de entrevistas domiciliares a partir de uma amostra probabilística, estratificada por conglomerados definidos pela escolaridade do chefe de família. A população estudada foi composta pelos entrevistados que referiram dificuldade auditiva e surdez segundo variáveis que compõem o banco de dados: faixa etária, gênero, duração, etiologia, atividades prejudicadas, uso dos serviços de saúde e condições de vida. A taxa de prevalência de deficiência auditiva foi de 6,18%, sendo 4,78% de dificuldade auditiva e 1,4% de surdez. Ocorreu maior taxa de prevalência de deficiência auditiva em estratos etários mais elevados, com diferença estatisticamente significante nos grupos acima de 59 anos . O gênero masculino apresentou maior taxa de prevalência de deficiência auditiva que o feminino, entretanto, estas diferenças não foram estatisticamente significantes. As etiologias atribuídas de maior ocorrência foram as relacionados ao trabalho (21,63%) e doenças (20,04%). A deficiência auditiva acarretou prejuízos mais significativos em atividades escolares (31,86%), seguidas por lazer (26,35%) e trabalho (25,98%). A grande maioria dos sujeitos com deficiência auditiva (80,59%) referiu não necessitar de assistência profissional e, dos que relataram necessitar, apenas 53,52% fazem uso de tal atendimento. Em relação às condições de vida, verificou-se maior proporção de deficientes auditivos em níveis mais baixos... / To assess the hearing loss prevalence in the urban population in Botucatu, a city in São Paulo state and to analyze the living conditions and the use of the health services for those people who reported the referred problem. Analysis of the database concerning to the study Saúde e Condição de Vida em São Paulo: Inquérito Multicêntrico de Saúde no Estado de São Paulo. ISA-SP (CESAR et al., 2005), (Health and Life Conditions in São Paulo: Health Multicentric Survey in São Paulo State. ISA-SP), which is an epidemiologic study of prevalence realized through domiciliary interviews based on a probabilistic sample, stratified on clusters defined by the scholarity level of the head of the family. The population aimed in this study was composed by the interviewees who reported hearing difficulties and deafness according to the database variables: age, gender, length, etiology, impaired activities, health services use and socioeconomic conditions. The hearing loss prevalence rate was 6.18%, considering 4.78% for hearing difficulties and 1.4% for deafness. The highest hearing loss prevalence rate in more elevated age layers, with a statiscally significant difference occurred in the above 59 year old group. The male gender presented higher hearing loss prevalence rates than the female gender, however these differences weren't statistically relevant. The etiologies addressed as the most frequent were related to work (21.63%) and illnesses (20.04%). The hearing loss resulted in more significant impairment in school activities (31.86%), followed by leisure (26.35%) and work (25.98%). Most of the subjects with hearing loss (80.59%) stated they don't need professional assistance and out of the ones who affirmed to need it, just 53.52% use this service indeed. Regarding to the life conditions, it was verified a bigger portion of hearing impaired persons in the lowest... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Ercília Maria C. Trezza / Banca: Ercília Maria Carone Trezza / Banca: Lígia Maria Suppo de Souza Rugolo / Banca: Sthella Zanchetta / Resumo: Analisar os resultados iniciais da triagem auditiva neonatal, obtidos na maternidade antes da alta hospitalar, em recém-nascidos de dois hospitais públicos de Campo Grande, MS. Método: estudo de coorte transversal com 20044 recém-nascidos de dois hospitais no período de janeiro de 2002 a dezembro de 2005. Foram utilizadas as Emissões Otoacústicas Evocadas Transientes (EOAETs) e a Pesquisa do Reflexo Cócleo-palpebral (RCP). Os resultados dos testes foram classificados em "passa" e "falha" para as EOAETs e em "presente" ou "ausente" para o RCP. Foram analisados em relação ao(s): local de nascimento, tempo de vida no momento da avaliação, peso ao nascimento, sexo, tipo de parto, valores de Apgar, convênio assistencial e risco para deficiência auditiva segundo o Joint Committee Infant Hearing (JCIH). Resultados: Foram testados 95,96% dos recém-nascidos dos dois hospitais; nesta amostra 87,52% de recém-nascidos foram de baixo risco e 12,48% de alto risco para a deficiência auditiva. Houve predominância de respostas "passa" nas EOAETs para o sexo feminino e para o parto normal. Também foi observada relação de aumento de peso e aumento das respostas "passa". Na população de baixo risco auditivo, conforme aumentava o tempo de vida no momento da avaliação, os resultados de "passa" também aumentavam; já na população de alto risco auditivo esta relação não foi observada. Conclusão: Este programa pode ser considerado como válido de acordo com as recomendações do JCIH. / Abstract: To analyze the initial results of the neonatal hearing sreening, gotten in the maternity before the discharge hospital, in newborns of two public hospitals of Campo Grande, MS. Method: transversal study of coorte with 20044 newborns of two hospitals in the period of January of 2002 the December of 2005. The Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAEs) and the cochleo-palpebral refex (CPR) had been used. The results of the tests had been classified in "pass" and "fail" for the TEOAEs and in "present" or "absent" for the CPR . They had been analyzed in relation the: place of birth, time of life at the moment of the evaluation, weight to the birth, sex, type of childbirth, values of Apgar, assistencial accord and risk for hearing impairment according to Joint Committee Infant Hearing (JCIH). Results: 95.96% of the newborns of the two hospitals had been tested; in this sample 87.52% of newborns had been of low risk and 12.48% of high risk for the hearing loss. It had predominance of answers "pass" in the TEOAEs for the feminine sex and the normal childbirth. Also relation of weight increase was observed and increased of the answers "pass". In the population of low auditory risk, as it increased the time of life at the moment of the evaluation, the results "pass" increased; already in the population of high auditory risk this relation was not observed. Conclusion: This program can be considered as valid in accordance with the recommendations of the JCIH. / Mestre