Quality of life in postlingually deaf patients following cochlear implantation

Abstract

Most cochlear implant studies are focused on improvement of speech perception associated with implantation. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of cochlear implantation on quality of life changes in Spanish users. Thirty postlingually deaf patients fitted with a cochlear implant completed the Glasgow Benefit Inventory, a questionnaire dealing with communication abilities, and an open-ended questionnaire. The Glasgow Benefit Inventory revealed a positive effect in 93% of patients. The use of a cochlear implant significantly enhanced discrimination ability, telephone use and self-confidence. A high degree of satisfaction was achieved in all situations except with background noise. Ninety-six percent of patients would recommend the operation to a friend. A dramatic improvement in quality of life following cochlear implantation is revealed by a great majority of patients. The results cannot only be explained by enhancements to auditory perception.

Satisfação dos usuários do implante coclear com perda auditiva pós-lingual

“…This finding is also related by other authors 8,11,14 . In this study conducted by Faber and Grontved (2000), it is possible to verify the be comprehended the large satisfaction with the aesthetics with our users in our investigation.…”

“…Manrique et al (2006) suggests that the limitation beyond being associated with the technology of the implants and with the functional state of the hearing pathway, also guards the relation with the innate limitations of the hearing system before the adverse situation and especially by the speech of binaural stimulation that has a patient implanted in one ear only 19 . Despite the possibility to achieve higher levels of speech comprehension, researches reveal that the users of the CI continue to present considerable difficulty in speech comprehension with noise in the background 11,20,21 . By evaluating the users satisfaction of the CI in different situations, Castro et al (2005) 22 proved that the satisfaction in noisy environments presents a smaller punctuation that the other aspects.…”

“…The level of satisfaction of CI users not always corresponds to the level of gains in the scores of perception of the speech. Consequently, it is not possible to predict the degree of satisfaction based only on objective tests 11 . Through this analysis it will be possible to access the fundamental questions that involves the user's expectations, psychological dimensions, difficulties that remain after the using the device, problems in the rehabilitation process, among others.…”

Quality of Life and Cost-Effectiveness of Cochlear Implants: A Narrative Review

“…Ten studies reported on generic health utility metrics, which included the Short Form-36 (SF-36) [Chung et al, 2012;Damen et al, 2007;Mo et al, 2005], Ontario Health Utilities Index (HUI) Marks II and III [Damen et al, 2007;Faber and Grøntved, 2000;Klop et al, 2007Klop et al, , 2008Sparreboom et al, 2012], the EQ5D, the VAS from the EQ5D, the time trade-off technique (TTO), the Australian Quality of Life (AQoL) instrument [Hawthorne et al, 2004], the Hopkins Symptom Check List 25 (HSCL-25) [Mo et al, 2005], the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) Index [Rembar et al, 2009], and the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) [Lassaletta et al, 2006]. Although none of these measures are specific to hearing or the effects of CI, some do incorporate hearing ability as part of the measure, as discussed below.…”

Nijmegen Cochlear Implantation Questionnaire (NCIQ): tradução, adaptação cultural e aplicação em adultos usuários de implante coclear

“…It is a specific instrument used by several researchers to evaluate a variety of aspects associated with the QoL of the adult CI user population which evidences the impact of the use of this electronic device on the daily life situations of its users, on the perception of speech sounds, and on the cost-benefit assessment of this type of intervention (9)(10)(11) . In addition, the NCIQ can also be used to monitor the impact of technological innovations and of the auditory rehabilitation process on the QoL of adult CI users over the time of device use (12)(13)(14) .…”