How's the baby? - FYI - evaluating newborn health screening programs - Author Abstract

Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, May-June, 2003 by Dore Hollander

All states require that newborns be screened for disorders that could, in the absence of early intervention, cause severe illness or death, but there is little consistency in which disorders states' programs include. (1) The majority of programs screen for six or fewer disorders; a few screen for about 30. While most states pro vide information on their screening program to parents and health care providers, many do not make parents aware of their option to obtain screening for disorders that are not part of the program. Criteria for deciding whether to screen for a given disorder typically include how often it occurs in a population, whether it is treatable and whether an effective screening test exists. A government-funded expert group is being convened to develop a list of disorders for which all states should screen newborns.

(1.) General Accounting Office (GAO), Newborn Screening: Characteristics of State Programs, Washington, DC: GAO, 2003.

FYI is compiled and written by Dore Hollander, executive editor of Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.