Health-related quality of life in cochlear implanted patients in Romania

Cochlear implantation is a well established treatment method in severe to profound hearing impaired people. Hearing devices do not cure hearing loss, but correct the disability, so it is important to assess the benefits not only on auditory-verbal performances but in terms of health-related quality of life.

We evaluated the health-related quality of life in a cochlear implant group (84 patients), split into two subgroups, according to the age of implantation and compared with a hearing aided group (50 patients). We used the Nijmegen cochlear implant HRQoL questionnaire which was sent to the parents. In the study group, all patients had unilateral MedEl device and at least 6 months of experience with the speech processor.

Although there were differences between hearing aided and implanted children in all areas of quality of life, in the physical area, these differences were greater than those in the psychological and social domains. HRQoL was positively correlated with auditory performance, speech intelligibility and negatively correlated with implantation age. The correlation coefficient, R=0.78, indicates that between these three variables, implantation age, SIR and CAP and quality of life, there was a very good linear and direct proportional correlation. According to the determination coefficient (R(2) adjusted=0.59), 59.5% of quality of life's variation was explained by the variation of these three parameters.

Cochlear implant improves the auditory performance and speech production much more than hearing aids. Associated diseases have a negative effect on the evolution of cochlear implanted children but the cochlear implant may have an important impact on these children quality of life. It is well known that children implanted at a young age evolve better than older ones, but we should take into consideration that even older children can get good results, good performances if they are properly selected and well trained.