Self-reported hearing quality of life measures in pediatric cochlear implant recipients with bilateral input

Abstract

Objective: Self-reported hearing quality of life (QoL) for pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients was examined, asking whether 1) children with CIs have similar QoL as those with less severe hearing loss (HL); 2) children with different bilateral CI (BCI) device configurations report different QoL; and 3) do audiological, demographic and spoken language factors affect hearing QoL?Design: One hundred four children (ages 7-11 years) using bimodal devices or BCIs participated. The Hearing Environments and Reflection of Quality of Life (HEAR-QL) questionnaire, receptive language and speech perception tests were administered. HEAR-QL scores of CI recipients were compared to scores of age-mates with normal hearing and mild to profound HL.Results: HEAR-QL scores for CI participants were similar to those of children with less severe HL and did not differ with device configuration. Emotion identification and word recognition in noise correlated significantly with HEAR-QL scores.Discussion: CI recipients reported that HL hinders social participation. Better understanding of speech in noise and emotional content was associated with fewer hearing-related difficulties on the HEAR-QL.Conclusions: Noisy situations encountered in educational settings should be addressed for children with HL. The link between perception of emotion and hearing-related QoL for CI recipients should be further examined.

Keywords: Bilateral input; Cochlear implants; Hearing quality of life; Pediatric patients; Speech perception.

Figure 1.

Box-plots for HEAR-QL scores for the Activities, Environments, Feelings and Total Score for NH; Normal Hearing, UHL; Unilateral Hearing Loss, BHL; Bilateral Hearing Loss; BHL and CI; Cochlear Implant groups. The limits of the box represent the lower and upper quartile of the distribution and the horizontal line through the box represents the median. Whiskers represent the minimum and maximum scores in the distribution, excluding outliers. Open-circle outliers are values between 1.5 and 3 interquartile ranges (IQR) from the end of a box; asterisk outliers are values more than 3 IQRs from the end of a box. Significant differences (p<.019) between the CI group and the HL groups are shown above each plot.

Figure 2.

Box-plots for the Total HEAR-QL scores for the Bimodal, Sequential and Simultaneous BCIs. The limits of the box represent the lower and upper quartile of the distribution and the horizontal line through the box represents the median. Open-circle outliers are values between 1.5 and 3 interquartile ranges from the end of a box.