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Effectiveness of an online continuing education course in infant hearing health for primary care professionals.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of an online continuing education course on infant hearing health for primary care professionals.


DESIGN
A prospective longitudinal study with interrupted time series pre-test/post-test design. The effectiveness of the online course was assessed by comparing pre- vs. post-training performance and analysing responses to evaluations of the quality of the course.


STUDY SAMPLE
The sample comprised individuals enrolled between September 2018 and August 2019 in a Ministry of Health course, "Actions in primary care for the early identification of hearing impairment" offered on the AVASUS platform.


RESULTS
Of the 2908 individuals registered, 1842 (63.3%) completed the course. Their ages ranged from 18 to 77 years, and 67.4% of them were females. Students and doctors were overrepresented among the enrollees. All Brazilian states were included in the sample. Comparisons of pre- and post-training performances showed a significant improvement in knowledge, and 99.3% of the participants provided positive comments regarding the quality of the course.


CONCLUSIONS
The course is an effective distance learning tool on infant hearing health for primary care professionals. The online course circumvents the limitations posed by geographical barriers and also facilitates decentralisation.