Telephone use and the factors influencing it among cochlear implant patients

Abstract

Objective

To investigate telephone use in cochlear implant patients and to determine factors most likely to influence telephone use.

Methods

Surveys were mailed to 504 cochlear implant patients treated at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Hospital.

Results

Two hundred four patients returned surveys (49%), 87% were classified as telephone users. No differences were found in age, pre-implant hearing characteristics, and the majority of post-implant behaviors. Education and post-implant sound perception scores were found to be significantly different (P < 0.05) between telephone users and non-users.

Discussion

Telephone use among cochlear implant patients shows a positive increase compared to previous studies. In addition, we find that higher attained education and post-implant hearing scores to be independently correlated to telephone use.

Keywords:

• Telephone use
• Cochlear implant
• Education