Evaluation of quality of life in patients after cochlear implantation surgery in 2014-2017

Abstract

Introduction: Profound hearing loss significantly affects the quality of life of deaf people as well as their families. Observation of the benefit from the use of cochlear implants in deaf patients allows to assess the success of treatment with this method and its impact on the quality of life of these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life in patient after the cochlear implantation in the material of Department of Phoniatrics and Audiology of the Medical University in Poznań. Material and methods: The study involved implanted patients who voluntarily joined to the project entitled "Observational study of the implanted patient (Cochlear-IROS)". It has a prospective character, it is an international and long-term study, covering the observation of patients up to three years after implantation. Standardized HUI and SSQ questionnaires were used. 70 patients were included in the analysis, the mean age at the time of the cochlear implantation was 47.6 years. In the research group there were 33 men and 37 women. In the whole group, the patients' age at implantation was at least 18 years, max. 80 years. Results: The results of the SSQ questionnaire, which deals with the self-assessment of hearing ability in everyday situations, indicate that in the subjective assessment of patients one year after surgery the speech hearing improved by 77%, spatial hearing by 84%, and the quality of hearing by 49%. The general quality of life before the first connection of the sound processor according to the HUI questionnaire, the patients rated at 0.49 (0-1 scale, where 0 - corresponds to the death condition and 1 - full health). After one year from the implantation, this rating increased to 0.56. Conclusions: The implantation of the cochlear implant significantly increases the patient's quality of life, its physical and emotional functioning. Statistically significant better self-assessment of patients mainly concerned hearing speech and spatial hearing - especially after 1 year of connecting the speech processor.

Health-Related Quality of Life and Work Satisfaction in Working-Aged Adults Pre- and Post-Cochlear Implant: A Longitudinal Study

“…There were smaller declines in HRQoL scoring for the attributes emotion, cognition, and health utility during the time of follow-up; those changes were not significant and are not necessarily related to hearing function, as the majority of SSQ domains and the global score showed overall increases. The health utility score in this current study reported 0.481 at baseline, and 0.653 and 0.650, at YR1 and YR2, respectively, which also shows similarity to the findings of a previous IROS study [ 23 ]. The previous study included individuals aged 18–80 years of age, had a smaller sample size ( n = 70), and presented a health utility score of 0.49 at baseline and 0.56 at follow-up [ 23 ].…”

Change in Health-Related Quality of Life in Cochlear Implant Recipients in China

“…Louise et al detected that three HUI3 subdomains of hearing, emotion, and speech significantly improved because of CI [ 10 ]. Hanna et al reported that patient only hearing and speech scores improved significantly according to HUI3 measurement after CI [ 11 ]. Summerfield's study reported great change in hearing and speech using HUI3 and a difference in depression using EQ-5D-3L [ 12 ].…”

The Functional Hearing Gain with an Active Transcutaneous Bone Conduction Implant Does Not Correlate with the Subjective Hearing Performance

“…Some authors have examined the impact of a CI on the health status of SSD patients. Czerniejewska-Wolska et al reported a multiattribute score of 0.56 one year after CI implantation [ 15 ]. Unfortunately, they did not report on the hearing status on the contralateral side.…”

“…An instrument for assessing the health-related QoL is the Health Utility Index (HUI), which is widely used to assess the cost-effectiveness of a treatment. The HUI was recommended for the assessment of health-related QoL in patients with SSD [ 14 ], and was used to document improved QoL after cochlear implant (CI) implantation [ 15 ]. To the best of our knowledge, only one center assessed health utilities based on HUI in a small group of BCI patients, and no correlation with objective hearing measurements exists [ 16 ].…”