A prospective study of the cost-utility of the multichannel cochlear implant

Abstract

Context: Prior clinical studies have indicated that cochlear implantation provides benefits to individuals with advanced sensorineural hearing loss who are unable to gain effective speech recognition with hearing aids.

Objective: To determine the cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) for adults receiving multichannel cochlear implants.

Design: Prospective 12-month multicenter study using preference-based quality-of-life measures and total cost determinations, comparing profoundly hearing-impaired adult subjects with and without cochlear implants.

Setting: Hospital-based and patient-resource clinics.

Patients: Severely to profoundly hearing-impaired adult recipients of a cochlear implant and adults eligible for the device who had not yet received it.

Main outcome measure: Clinical assessment of implant participants included medical and audiologic (speech understanding) data at the time of enrollment, 6 months, and 12 months. All participants' health-utility was assessed at the time of enrollment, 6 months, and 12 months using the Health Utility Index. One-year medical resource utilization and cost data included bills related to implants, patient diaries, charge estimates from clinical sites, and published literature. A decision model was developed to determine cost per QALY.

Results: Of the 84 enrolled adults, 62 (75%) completed the study. Mean health-utility scores at the time of enrollment were identical between groups. The marginal 12-month health-utility gain for implant recipients was 0.20; 90% of this improvement was achieved within 6 months. For patients with a mean 22-year life expectancy, the marginal cost per QALY was $14,670.

Conclusions: Overall, multichannel cochlear implants significantly improved recipients' performance on measures of speech understanding and ratings of health-utility within 6 months of implantation. The multichannel cochlear implant yielded a very favorable cost per QALY.