Newborn hearing screenings deliberately accept false positives to avoid missing true hearing loss
Evidence
Babies who have an otoacoustic emission above a certain level “pass” the newborn hearing screening, and babies whose emission falls below that level or cannot be recorded are “referred” for follow-up testing. … The field has determined that identifying hearing loss as early as possible is the primary goal and that missing a baby with hearing loss is far more detrimental than referring babies with good hearing. Thus, newborn hearing screenings adopt a liberal criterion — there are many false positives and many babies are referred who do not have hearing loss. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 346
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Maps directly onto signal detection theory as applied clinically — connects to the audiometric criterion discussion in the same chapter and to standard SDT treatment in medical testing.
- ADDENDUM: Parallel to the sacrifice piece: the field consciously trades many false referrals to secure the rare true positive — chosen cost, not miscalibration.
Related
- Zero false positives during threshold testing signals feigned hearing loss (similarity 0.80)
- Absent otoacoustic emissions signal abnormal inner or middle ear function (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Lack of hearing diagnostics once caused deaf children to be mislabeled intellectually disabled
#expands(0.70) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2629