Impact of music on the quality of life of cochlear implant users: a focus group study

Abstract

Objective: To study the aspects of the quality of life (QoL) on which music has an impact in adult cochlear implant (CI) users.

Methods: Thirty adult CI users aged between 18 and 81 years old with a wide range of patient characteristics and musical backgrounds participated in the study. Six focus group discussions about music in everyday life were conducted and data were analysed using template analysis based on the QoL model of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life BREF questionnaire.

Results and discussion: A theoretical framework of the impact of music on the QoL was developed. Music was reported to contribute to many aspects of physical, psychological, and social well-being in adult CI users. These positive effects of music on QoL were similar to what has been reported in the literature for normal-hearing adults. However, difficulties in music perception and enjoyment were found to have a negative impact on CI users’ QoL, especially by causing unpleasant feelings and limited participation in music-related or routine daily activities.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that an improvement in music experiences of CI users may lead to improvements in QoL and therefore support the need for music rehabilitation. However, the relative importance of music overall and of specific aspects of music for each individual should be measured for an accurate assessment of the impact of music on the QoL of CI users.

Keywords:

• Cochlear implant
• Music
• Quality of life
• Focus group

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the CI users who participated in the focus groups for their time, feedback, and enthusiasm. We would also like to thank Dr Helen Cullington from the USAIS for her help with the recruitment of participants and Dr Kim Bull from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Southampton for revising the article.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors None.

Funding This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under a Doctoral Training Grant awarded to the University of Southampton, EP/K503150/1.

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethics approval The study was approved by the UK National Research Ethics Committee (14/ EM/ 0140), the University of Southampton Ethics Committee, and the University of Southampton Research Governance Office (8264).

ORCID

Giorgos Dritsakis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2746-963X

Notes

1 The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined QoL as ‘an individual's perception of their position in life' and as a concept that is affected ‘by the person's physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, and their relationship to salient features of their environment' (WHOQOL, 1993). This definition is adopted throughout the article.

2 Congenitally deaf or went deaf < 3 years old.