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Cochlear implantation and quality of life in postlingually deaf adults: long-term follow-up
Godelieve W J A Damen1, Andy J Beynon, Paul F M Krabbe
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. g.damen@kno.umcn.nl
Objective:
To investigate long-term quality of life (QoL) in postlingually deaf adults after entering the cochlear implantation (CI) program.
Study Design And Setting:
Follow-up study from 1998 onwards in tertiary university medical center. Long-term CI users, patients who have not received a CI, and relatively short-term CI users were re-evaluated six years after initial data collection in 1998 by using three questionnaires (NCIQ, HUI3, and SF36) and speech perception tests.
Results And Conclusions:
In general, the beneficial effect of CI remained stable during long-term follow-up, though scores on the questionnaires decreased slightly. Outcomes before and after cochlear implantation were significantly different. The group without a CI demonstrated slightly decreasing trends in outcomes. Long-term speech perception performance improved in time.
Significance:
This is the first study to investigate long-term follow-up of CI patients, in all aspects of QoL combined with speech perception performance, in comparison with postlingually deaf adults without CI.