Quality of life in children with cochlear implants in Kazakhstan

Abstract

Background Although cochlear implantation (CI) has been performed in Kazakhstan since 2007 little is known about quality of life of patients after CI. The aim of this study was to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of Kazakhstani children after CI. Methods Altogether, 53 families with a child using a cochlear implant for at least 1 year participated in the study between July 20, 2019 and February 20, 2020 at the Audiological Сenter of Almaty, Kazakhstan. The parents/caregivers completed the “Children with Cochlear Implants: Parental Perspectives (CCIPP)” questionnaire. Results ‘Well-being and happiness’ subdomain of the HRQoL yielded the highest ratings. ‘Communication’, ‘general functioning’, ‘self-reliance’, and ‘supporting the child’ subdomains each achieved significant (p < 0.01) associations with all HRQoL subdomains. There were positive correlations between language used by the parent who completed the questionnaire (Kazakh or Russian) and three HRQoL subdomains, including ‘well-being and happiness’, ‘supporting the child’ and ‘social relations’. Conclusion Parents/caregivers reported high quality of life in all HRQoL subdomains. Further research in this area with more detailed socio-demographic and medical history data is required to identify quality of life predictors in children after cochlear implantation.

Parent-reported quality of life in children with cochlear implants differs across countries

“…Table 10 displays pairwise mean differences between samples. Byckova et al (2018) , Huttunen et al (2009) , Kumar et al (2015) , and Zhumabayev et al (2022) tended to support more positive QoL on this subscale compared to the other samples. Also, Brewis et al (2020) reported significantly higher values than Archbold et al (2008) , Fortunato-Tavares et al (2012) , de Almeida et al (2015 ; <24mo and >24mo), Molla et al (2019) , and Shahmahmood et al (2020) .…”

“…Although education traditionally tends to be ranked relatively low among QoL indicators ( Hyde et al, 2010 ; Zhao et al, 2018 ; Bhamjee et al, 2019 ), global parent proxy reports using the CCIPP ranged considerably from ranking education and academics as the second lowest level of QoL ( Kumar et al, 2015 ; Zhumabayev et al, 2022 ) to the second highest level of QoL ( Molla et al, 2019 ; Anne et al, 2021 ) across the subscales. Differences in appraising cochlear implantation relative to academics could indicate country-specific differences in the emphasis on academics in Bangladesh ( Molla et al, 2019 ), Kazakhstan ( Zhumabayev et al, 2022 ), and the United States ( Kumar et al, 2015 ; Anne et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Fewer than five studies report on parent proxy QoL outcomes using each of the following measures: Survey of Parents of Pediatric Cochlear Implantees ( Christiansen and Leigh, 2004 ; Hyde et al, 2010 ); the Cochlear Implant Expectations Questionnaire ( Zaidman-Zait and Most, 2005 ; Hyde et al, 2010 ; Punch and Hyde, 2010 ), Parent Expectations Questionnaire for Cochlear Implants ( Kumar et al, 2016 ; Alam et al, 2019 ; Alkhatani, 2021 ; Halawani et al, 2021 ), and the Quality of Life—Cochlear Implant ( Hoffman et al, 2019 ; Cejas et al, 2021 ). The CCIPP reflects the most frequently used CI-specific QoL instrument worldwide (e.g., Incesulu et al, 2003 ; Nicholas and Geers, 2003 ; O’Neill et al, 2004 ; Nunes et al, 2005 ; Archbold et al, 2006 , 2008 ; Damen et al, 2007 ; Huttunen et al, 2009 ; Fortunato-Tavares et al, 2012 ; Sparreboom et al, 2012 ; Stefanini et al, 2014 ; de Almeida et al, 2015 ; Kumar et al, 2015 ; Yorgun et al, 2015 ; Asfour et al, 2018 ; Byckova et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2018 ; Hassuji, 2019 ; Molla et al, 2019 ; Tokat et al, 2019 ; Brewis et al, 2020 ; Peker et al, 2020 ; Shahmahmood et al, 2020 ; Silva et al, 2020 , 2021 ; Anne et al, 2021 ; Yang et al, 2022 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ; Zhumabayev et al, 2022 ).…”

Health-Related Quality of Life in Children Hospitalised Due to Four Ent Illnesses: A Selective Review

“…It also found that HRQOL was more limited in children with bilateral hearing loss than those with unilateral hearing loss. It has been stressed in other studies that children having cochlear implants were found to have similar HRQOL to healthy children [51][52][53][54][55]. Changes in hearing threshold and tinnitus severity after stapes surgery have also been found to be important to quality of life in adult patients [56].…”

“…then the local symptoms reported include: changes in breathing pattern to mouth breathing (adenoid faces/long face syndrome), malocclusion, altered voice timbre, night snoring, and night apnea. Furthermore, an enlarged adenoid may impair the patency of the Eustachian tube which, inter alia, can lead to exudative otitis media, that may lead to hearing loss [49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Symptoms of tonsil hypertrophy are snoring, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, speech disorders such as slurred speech, and dysphagia (especially with solid foods) [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]51,55].…”