The long-term results of speech perception in elderly cochlear implant users

To evaluate the speech discrimination performance of elderly post-lingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) users and the stability of performance over time relative to a control group of younger CI users.

The study group consisted of 20 native Dutch speaking, post-lingually deafened CI users, aged 70 or older at the time of implantation. Controls were patients aged 40-60 years at implantation and included according to the same inclusion criteria (except age). Linear mixed models assessed speech recognition scores between groups, the variability of their performance, and stability over time.

20 elderly and 37 controls were included. The mean follow-up was 4.4 and 5.3 years for elderly and controls, respectively. There was no significant difference in average speech discrimination between both groups. The elderly group had a larger intra-subject variability over time. There was no significant effect of follow-up on the speech discrimination, indicating a stable performance over time.

This study has a longer follow-up than methodologically comparable previous studies. We found no difference in speech discrimination between elderly patients and controls and no deterioration of performance over time. The subjects in the elderly group exhibit a larger variability around their mean performance.

Speech recognition in both elderly and younger adult CI users is stable over time and is not significantly related to the age of implantation.