Self-reported music perception is related to quality of life and self-reported hearing abilities in cochlear implant users

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographics of the study participants. n refers to number of participants in each table and figure

Total number of participants (n)	98
Gender (n)
Male	39
Female	59
Age range (y)	18–85
Mean age (y)	65.6 ± 11.9
Level of education* (n)
Lower	13
Middle	67
Higher	14
Mean duration hearing impairment (y)	37.9 ± 18.6
Mean CI use since implantation (y)	5.5 ± 2.8
Mean CI use per day (h)	15.0 ± 2.6
Hearing aid on the contra-lateral ear (n)	36 (35%)
Implant type (n)
CI22M^a	1
CI24R CA^a	24
CI24R k^a	3
CI24RE CA^a	27
CI24R CS^a	19
HiRes90 K Helix^b	24
Speech processor type (n)
Esprit3G^a	31
Freedom^a	43
Harmony^b	24
Mean phoneme-in-word recognition in quiet (presented at 65 dB SPL)	55% ± 24%
Mean phoneme-in-word recognition in quiet (presented at 75 dB SPL)	70% ± 21%

*This data is from the DMBQ questionnaire, which is filled by 94 respondents.

^a Cochlear Ltd, Macquarie University, Australia. ACE speech strategy.

^b Advanced Bionics Corp., California, USA device. HiRes speech strategy.

Figure 1 Best, worst and average acoustic hearing thresholds measured in the contra-lateral ear before cochlear implantation, as were available from patient charts of 92 CI participants.

Figure 2 Self-reported music listening habits before (left box) and after implantation (right box), shown from 74 CI users and as measured by DMBQ. The total scores ranged from 2 (minimum music listening habits) to 8 (maximum music listening habits). The 25th–75 th percentile is presented by the boxes, the median values by the lines, and the 10th–90 th percentile by the error bars. The dots are the outliers.

Figure 3 The self-reported quality of music, scored between 0 (worst) and 100 (best), shown as averaged (rightmost hatched box) and shown separately for the seven descriptor pairs (blue boxes), shown for N = 97 of the DMBQ. The combined total score, averaged across the seven scales, is shown by the rightmost box. The boxes represent the distributions as described in Fig. 2.

Figure 4 The differentiation and recognition of the elements of music, shown in percentages of the respondents who reported a positive (i.e. 5–7), neutral (i.e. 4), or negative ability (i.e. 1–3), shown for N = 87 as measured by DMBQ.

Table 2 Mean scores and standard deviations of the domains and total scores of the NCIQ (between 0 and 100)

NCIQ	Mean ± standard deviation	Range
Sound perception basic	55 ± 21	0–95
Sound perception advanced	47 ± 19	13–88
Speech production	76 ± 16	33–100
Self esteem	63 ± 17	18–95
Activity limitations	65 ± 20	11–100
Social interactions	65 ± 16	19–100
Total NCIQ	62 ± 15	20–87

Table 3 Mean scores and standard deviations of the domains and total scores of the SSQ (between 0 and 10)

SSQ	Mean ± standard deviation	Range
Speech	3.2 ± 1.8	0–7.7
Spatial	3.0 ± 2.1	0–7.6
Qualities of hearing	3.9 ± 1.9	0–8.1
Total SSQ	3.4 ± 1.7	0.2–7.4

Table 4 Multiple linear regression results from comparisons between NCIQ, SSQ, phoneme-in-word recognition scores (speech 65; speech75) and the DMBQ measures, listening habits pre- and post-CI, quality of the sound of music and elements of music. N = Number of respondents. Entries marked with gray show the significant outcomes

				DMBQ
	Regression fit			Listening habits Pre-CI		Listening habits Post-CI		Quality of music		Elements of music
	n	r	p	t	p	t	p	t	p	t	p
NCIQ	67	0.50	0.001	−0.59	0.558	−0.23	0.822	0.44	0.663	3.54	0.001
SSQ	55	0.50	0.007	−0.94	0.351	−1.36	0.160	0.22	0.830	3.70	0.001
Speech 65	51	0.31	0.303	−0.51	0.611	0.23	0.820	0.78	0.442	1.11	0.771
Speech 75	52	0.34	0.209	0.37	0.713	−0.10	0.924	0.81	0.425	1.54	0.130