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Updated: Oct 17, 2025
Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
The Cochlear Implant Use Questionnaire: Assessing Habits and Barriers to Use
Jourdan T Holder1, Lindsay S Mayberry2, René Gifford1
1Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences.
Objective:
The objective was to design a questionnaire to identify daily cochlear implant (CI) use habits and barriers to daily CI use and to administer this questionnaire to adult CI users. We hypothesized that recipients who reported a greater number of barriers to daily CI use would show lower daily CI use.
Study Design:
Questionnaire.
Setting:
Academic medical center.
Patients:
Hundred adult CI recipients.
Main Outcome Measures:
Questionnaire responses and amount of CI use per day as measured from the CI software.
Results:
The cochlear implant use questionnaire (CIUQ) was created and responses were obtained from 100 participants. The CIUQ yielded an average overall score of 23 (range, 3-54) out of 100; responses were variable, and CI recipients experienced different barriers to using their CI processor. The CIUQ overall score was significantly correlated with recipients' daily CI use (h/d) (rs = -0.561, p < 0.0001, 95% confidence interval [-0.694, -0.391]), which provides evidence of construct validity. Responses were immediately useful for identifying and overcoming barriers to consistent CI use with our study participants.
Conclusions:
Increasing evidence suggests that daily CI use is correlated with speech recognition outcomes. To optimize outcomes, clinicians should consider implementing this questionnaire to identify and overcome barriers to consistent, full-time CI processor use.
