ObjectivesThis study examined the quality of life (QoL) of the parents and siblings of hearing-impaired children with cochlear implants (CIs).DesignThis is a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study. The questionnaire consists of three sub-domains - interaction, emotional well-being and support for the hearing-impaired child and the overall QoL -- and two open-ended questions for participants to provide comments and suggestions to enhance their family's QoL. A total of 63 questionnaires were e-mailed or mailed to families who met the inclusion criteria.SettingThe study was conducted under the Center for Rehabilitation & Special Needs, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.ParticipantsA total of 79 parents and 23 siblings from 44 families of children with CI participated in this study.Main outcome measuresThe mean score for each of the sub-domain and the overall QoL for both subject groups were computed. The answers for the open-ended questions were listed and organized into themes.ResultsThere were significant correlations between the overall QoL score and each of the test domains for the parents' group (p < 0.01). For the siblings' group, only the interaction and support domains were significant. Interaction was the main sub-domain affecting the parents' QoL but for siblings, this could not be determined. A total of 60% of the pooled comments were classified as ‘concerns’. As for the suggestions, 38.7% requested some form of support, mainly financial (41.7%).ConclusionsFamilies with hearing impaired children with CI have numerous concerns that need to be addressed, even though, on average, they were satisfied with their overall QoL.

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Background and ObjectivesThis study investigated the effect of ageing on speech perception in quiet and in noise, with noise directed from front, right and left.Subjects and MethodsSixty Malay native adults with normal or near normal hearing comprising of 20 young adults (21 to 39 years old), 20 middle aged (40 to 59 years old) and 20 older adults (60 to 74 years old) participated in this study. Their speech perception ability was measured using the Malay Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) in four test conditions; 1) in quiet (HINT Q), 2) with noise from front (HINT NF), 3) with noise from right (HINT NR), and 4) with noise from left (HINT NL). Reception thresholds for sentences (RTSs) were measured in each of the aforementioned conditions using an adaptive method.ResultsThe results showed that, 1) genuine age-related decline was found in speech perception performance in HINT (NF), 2) hearing threshold was a major determinant differentiating speech perception performance for HINT (Q) and HINT (NL) conditions, and 3) speech perception performance for HINT (NR) was determined by both age and hearing threshold.ConclusionsThis study suggests that, in older adults, while hearing thresholds affect speech perception in quiet, other factors such as central auditory processing and cognitive functions might be more important determinant factors for speech perception performance in noise.

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