Abstract
Objectives
To Review the benefit of the GAST questionnaire (Tilston, S. 2003. Assessing the quality of life in adult cochlear implant users. MSc dissertation. London: City University.) to measure hearing related quality of life for adults pre and post-cochlear implantation. To develop a scoring methodology as to what score constitutes a significantly ‘good’ or ‘poor’ change to better target rehabilitation to those most in need.
Design
The GAST Questionnaire was developed using a robust cycle of validation and reliability analyses using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Norusis, M. 1993. SPSS for windows: professional statistics. release 6.0. Chicago: SPSS Inc.). The scoring methodology was developed by dividing 83 patient full data sets into quintiles for the delta of quality of life improvement and the 9–12 month post-implantation GAST score.
Results
The GAST questionnaire design was deemed robust. The scoring methodology used led to the 20th percentile score highlighting individuals requiring further support and the 80th percentiles for those suitable for partial booking.
Conclusion
The GAST questionnaire is a useful way of identifying the patients in need of support as well as to measure patient reported quality of life improvements following cochlear implantation.
Supplemental data
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/14670100.2021.1961364.
Disclaimer statement
Contributors Thanks go to David Canning who was my MSc project Clinical Supervisor at City University, London.
Funding None.
Conflicts of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethics approval None
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sandra Driver
Sandra Driver is the Clinical Lead Speech and Language Therapist.
Andrew Soulby
Andrew Soulby is an Audiological Scientist and Research Audiologist.
Natasha Shallita
Natasha Shallita, Specialist Speech and Language Therapists.
Hazel Walters
Hazel Walters, Specialist Speech and Language Therapists.
Isabelle Jones
Isabelle Jones, Specialist Speech and Language Therapists.
Dan Jiang
Professor Dan Jiang is an Otolaryngologist and Skull Based Surgeon and Clinical Director of the Hearing Implant Service.