There is substantial evidence that newborn hearing screening (NHS) reduces the negative sequelae of permanent childhood hearing loss (PCHL) if performed in programs that aim to screen all newborns in a region or nation (often referred to as Universal Newborn Hearing Screening or UNHS). The World Health Organization (WHO) has called in two resolutions for the implementation of such programs and for the collection of large-scale data. To assess the global status of NHS programs we surveyed individuals potentially involved with newborn and infant hearing screening (NIHS) in 196 countries/territories (in the following text referred to as countries). Replies were returned from 158 countries. The results indicated that 38% of the world’s newborns and infants had no or minimal hearing screening and 33% screened at least 85% of the babies (hereafter referred to as UNHS). Hearing screening programs varied considerably in quality, data acquisition, and accessibility of services for children with PCHL. In this article, we summarize the main results of the survey in the context of several recent WHO publications, particularly the World Report on Hearing, which defined advances in the implementation of NHS programs in the Member States as one of three key indicators of worldwide progress in ear and hearing care (EHC).

Background: The treatment of functional speech sound disorders (SSDs) in children is often lengthy, ill-defined, and without satisfactory evidence of success; effectiveness studies on SSDs are rare. This randomized controlled trial evaluates the effectiveness of the integrated SSD treatment program PhonoSens, which focuses on integrating phonological and phonetic processing according to the Integrated Psycholinguistic Model of Speech Processing (IPMSP). Methods: Thirty-two German-speaking children aged from 3.5 to 5.5 years (median 4.6) with functional SSD were randomly assigned to a treatment or a wait-list control group with 16 children each. All children in the treatment group and, after an average waiting period of 6 months, 12 children in the control group underwent PhonoSens treatment. Results: The treatment group showed more percent correct consonants (PCC) and a greater reduction in phonological processes after 15 therapy sessions than the wait-list control group, both with large effect sizes (Cohen’s d = 0.89 and 1.04). All 28 children treated achieved normal phonological abilities: 21 before entering school and 7 during first grade. The average number of treatment sessions was 28; the average treatment duration was 11.5 months. Conclusion: IPMSP-aligned therapy is effective in the treatment of SSD and is well adaptable for languages other than German.

Professional singers' careers are usually associated with health-relevant factors that they themselves may or may not be able to influence. We have therefore investigated the effect of modifiable health-related behaviors and non-modifiable factors on singers' occupational health. In an explorative, questionnaire-based study, self-reported, occupationally relevant health complaints and behaviors, along with singer-specific characteristics, were surveyed from 349 professional singers and voice teachers (116 men, 233 women; age 18-73 years) and the influence of age, gender, duration of daily and lifelong singing, voice category, and health-related behaviors (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity) on occupationally relevant health complaints were analyzed using bi- and multivariate statistical methods. Singers reported less risky alcohol consumption (5.4% versus ≈15%) and smoking (15.5% versus 29.7%) than the general population, and too little physical activity was described in two thirds of both populations. After controlling for multiple testing, no effect was found for these behaviors, the time spent singing daily, gender, or voice categories on singers' complaints. Health complaints were significantly fewer for males (P < .001) and older women and were reported more frequently for higher-pitched male voices, a trend not found in females. Singers seem to smoke and drink less than members of the general population. These factors did not affect their complaints. Female singers described more work-related health complaints than males, a finding that corresponds to women in the general population. Older singers reported fewer complaints than younger singers, possibly because of selection effects or older singers acquiring strategies to avoid health-damaging behavior.

Background/Objectives: Voice disorders caused by laryngeal hypertension can impact volume, quality, pitch, resonance, flexibility, and stamina. The laryngeal palpation is a tactile-perceptual assessment, which is one of a few examination methods to evaluate laryngeal hypertension. Laryngeal palpation is a manual examination of the extrinsic and paralaryngeal tissues of the larynx (e.g., lateral laryngeal mobility, thyrohyoid and cricothyroid spaces, vertical laryngeal position/mobility, and pain) through the examiner’s fingers. It can be performed during rest (static assessment) or during phonation (dynamic assessment) of the individual being evaluated. This study aimed to validate a novel laryngeal palpation tool with quantitative ordinal scores by assessing its reliability and diagnostic accuracy establishing preliminary clinical cut-off values, and examining its correlations with self-reported voice disorder symptoms. Methods: In a prospective, controlled validation study, 33 participants were selected to assess the validity and reliability of the novel diagnostic tool in a clinical sample and healthy controls. The clinical sample (n = 19) comprised individuals diagnosed with voice disorders, whereas the healthy control group (n = 14) included participants with no history or symptoms of voice pathology. The novel laryngeal palpation tool was employed by two independent examiners to assess both static and dynamic laryngeal function in all participants. In addition, each participant completed the following questionnaires: Voice Handicap Index (VHI-30) with the 30-item, Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI), and the Vocal Tract Discomfort Scale (VTD). Results: Static palpatory assessment of laryngeal tension demonstrated excellent discriminatory power between groups and tension levels (AROC = 0.979), along with high intra-rater (ICC = 0.966) and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.866). Significant correlations were revealed between the static palpation results and the VHI scores (r = 0.496; p < 0.01) and VFI (r = 0.514; p < 0.01). For the dynamic evaluation of the palpation tool, comparable results for the validity (AROC = 0.840) and reliability (inter-rater: ICC = 0.800, and intra-rater: ICC = 0.840) were revealed. However, no significant correlations were found between dynamic palpation and self-perceived questionnaires, although some were likely found with static palpation. The validity of the total score was found to be AROC = 0.992. Conclusions: The static and dynamic assessments using the novel laryngeal palpation tool demonstrated promising reliability and diagnostic accuracy, providing initial evidence to support its clinical utility. Further studies are needed to establish broader validation.

The prevalence of intellectual disabilities (ID) has increased, partly due to higher survival rates among preterm infants as well as improvements in medical care (1). A meta-analysis estimated the global prevalence of ID at approximately 1.04%....