Health related quality of life in adolescent cochlear implant users

Objective: Children with significant hearing loss (HL) are at risk for lower self-esteem and lower perceived quality of life (QoL). This study examined how self-reported QoL of adolescents cochlear implant (CI) users compared to that of adolescents with normal hearing, and examined if factors such as socioeconomic status (SES) and communication methodology affect QoL and speech recognition. Methods: Forty-three adolescent CI users completed a 34-item questionnaire that included questions adapted from the QoL of Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing Youth questionnaire (Seattle Quality of Life Group SEAQOL. 2010 Quality of life of deaf or hard-of-hearing youth (YQOL-DHH). Seattle, Washington) and from the Kidscreen-10 Index (The KIDSCREEN Group, Europe, 2006, the KIDSCREEN questionnaires - quality of life questionnaires for children and adolescents handbook. Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers. All subjects received their first CI prior to the age of 5, and ranged in age from 10-17 years at the time of survey completion. Results: Adolescents with CIs demonstrated self-reported QoL scores similar to children with normal hearing. Lower SES and communication mode appear to influence speech recognition, and also appear to impact self-reported QoL in different ways. Conclusions: Examination of communication outcomes, along with other factors that influence QoL, such as SES, will help clinicians identify children at risk for low QoL. Such identification will help generate appropriate referrals to enhance QoL in adolescent CI users.