From clusters to clinical rules: unsupervised machine learning identifies four newborn hearing phenotypes with bedside risk stratification.

OBJECTIVE

To identify risk patterns among high-risk newborns associated with hearing screening failure using unsupervised machine learning.

STUDY

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort of 447 newborns. Partition around medoids clustering (Gower distance) was applied to demographic, perinatal, and diagnostic data. CART decision tree and diagnostic co-occurrence network analyses were performed to translate phenotypes into clinical rules and reveal risk factor synergy.

RESULTS

Four distinct phenotypes emerged: Cluster 1 (28.4%, term jaundice) had the lowest failure (20.5%); Cluster 2 (25.5%, preterm males with respiratory morbidity) the highest (48.2%); Cluster 3 (30.6%, preterm females) intermediate (38.0%); Cluster 4 (15.4%, term respiratory/infectious) moderate (24.6%) (all P < 0.001). The decision tree generated simple bedside rules (e.g., males with weight < 1.795 kg → 83.3% failure). Co-occurrence network revealed a tightly connected core of respiratory disorders, infection, and preterm/low birth weight (Jaccard 0.31-0.46), while jaundice was isolated.

CONCLUSIONS

Unsupervised clustering identified ~ ~ four neonatal phenotypes ~ ~ four distinct risk co-occurrence patterns in a high-risk neonatal unit cohort. Complementary decision tree and network analyses provided clinically actionable rules and exposed synergistic risk factor patterns that logistic regression could not capture. These findings support pattern-based risk stratification as a valuable complement to variable-centered methods.