Voice Quality in Cochlear Implant Recipients: An Observational Cross Sectional Study

Children with hearing loss are more likely to suffer from voice and speech disorders than with normal hearing due to their poor and less robust auditory feedback mechanisms. Prelingually deaf children are not able to supervise their own voice due to lack of auditory feedback. Cochlear implanted children achieve better hearing and consequently enhanced speech intelligibility. Various parameters of voice improve with continous usage of cochlear implant. However all the vocal parameters do not show similar degree of change. Previous studies have assessed the voice quality of cochlear implantees and have given inconsistent results. The aim of the study is to compare the voice quality of cochlear implant children with normal subjects using objective and subjective methods. The study was undertaken after obtaining clearance from the Institutional Ethics committee. Written informed consent for carrying out voice analysis was taken from the parents. The voice analysis of 42 normal and 42 cochlear implant children were done using the Dr Voice software by Tiger Inc. All the children were age and sex matched. The parameters assessed were fundamental frequency, maximum phonation time, jitter%, shimmer% and harmonics to noise ratio. The findings of both the group were compared. The cochlear implanted children showed significant deviation of all the measured parameters as compared to the normal children. The voice quality of the implanted children is poor and deviant from the normal. Even after continuous usage of cochlear implant for 1 year the voice quality of these children did not reach to the levels of their normal hearing peers.