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:

• Pediatric patients
• Cochlear implants
• Hearing quality of life
• Speech perception
• Bilateral input

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by NIDCD T35DC008765 and NIDCD R01 DC012778 (PI: Davidson). Appreciation is expressed to Ann Geers for comments and editing of this manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health. Appreciation is expressed to the 104 students and their parents who graciously gave their time and effort to participate in this study. Appreciation is expressed to speech language pathologists, audiologists and deaf educators who conducted testing at the follow sites: Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Central Institute for the Deaf-St. Louis, Child’s Voice-Chicago, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s Choice for Hearing and Talking-Sacramento, Hearts for Hearing, Listen and Talk-Seattle, Memphis Oral School for the Deaf, Moog Center for Deaf Education, St. Louis, Ohio Valley Voices, Presbyterian Ear Institute-Albuquerque, University of Miami, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, University of Texas at Dallas, Vanderbilt University Medical Center-Nashville, Weingarten Children’s Center-Redwood City.

This research was approved by the Human Studies Committee at Washington University School of Medicine (IRB#-201305136).

JL and DS report no relevant conflicts of interest related to this work. LSD is a member of the Knowledge Implementation in Pediatric Audiology (KIPA) group, Oticon.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors None.

Funding This work was supported by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: [Grant Number R01 DC012778; T35DC008765].

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethics approval None.

ORCID

Judith Lieu http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7933-5601