PURPOSE: To evaluate the commitment of parents for carrying out the hearing procedures of a Children's Hearing Health Program at their community. METHODS: It was carried out a comparative analysis of the information regarding parents' attendance at two Children's Hearing Health Programs, one developed at a public hospital and the other carried out along with the Family Health Program (FHP). The sample comprised 362 children born between February and March 2007 at the hospital in which the hearing screening was performed, and who were enrolled in the FHP. RESULTS: From the 362 children who had been born at the hospital and referred for hearing evaluation at the basic health unit of the same community, 147 attended the evaluation, representing 40.61% of commitment to the project developed there. Only 39.80% of the families whose children's screening suggested no hearing alterations committed the program carried out along with the FHP. Thirty-two families (55.18%) did not participate in any of the existing hearing health programs, therefore remaining unaware of their child's hearing condition. CONCLUSION: The attendance of the families at the basic health unit was less than half of the families who had been invited to take the children for hearing evaluation, regardless if the child had been submitted to the process of identification of hearing loss at the public hospital.
Hearing; Hearing loss; Newborn hearing screening; Family health; Single Health System; Health Program and Plans
