The objective of this study was to examine variables that may predict open set speech discrimination following cochlear implantation. It consisted of a retrospective case review conducted in a tertiary referral centre with a cochlear implant programme. The patients were 117 postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant recipients. The main outcome measures were Bench, Kowal, Bamford (BKB) sentence scores recorded nine months following implant activation. The variables studied were age at the time of surgery, sex, duration of hearing loss, aetiology of hearing loss, residual hearing, implant type, speech processor strategy, number of active electrodes inserted. Variables found to have a significant effect on BKB following univariate analysis were entered into a multivariate analysis to determine independent predictors. Multivariate ordinal regression analysis gave an odds ration of 1.09 for each additional year of deafness prior to implantation (confidence interval 1.06-1.13; p < 0.001). Duration of deafness prior to implantation is an independent predictor of implant outcome. It accounted for 9% of the variability. Other factors must influence implant performance.

The overall prevalence of device nonuse was noted to increase slowly with time. The role of psychologic factors in contributing to the decision of an individual to elect to opt out of device use remains unproven.

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