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Updated: Aug 8, 2025
Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
[Long-term hearing outcomes of children with cochlear implant]
Ye Yang1, Junyan Gao2, Yaofeng Jiang2
1Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery，Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School，Jiangsu Provincial Key Medical Discipline（Laboratory），Research Institute of Otolaryngology，Nanjing，210008，China.
Insights
Long-term cochlear implant (CI) use in children provides adequate hearing for daily communication. However, a gap persists compared to hearing peers, necessitating ongoing societal support for improved outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric audiology
- Rehabilitation science
- Hearing technology
Context:
- Children with unilateral cochlear implants (CI) require long-term outcome assessment.
- Understanding the impact of CI on speech recognition and quality of life is crucial.
- Comparing long-term CI users with shorter-term users and normal-hearing peers provides valuable insights.
Purpose:
- To investigate the long-term rehabilitation outcomes in children with unilateral cochlear implants (CI).
- To provide guidance for clinical applications of cochlear implantation in pediatric populations.
- To evaluate the impact of CI on speech perception and quality of life over extended periods.
Summary:
- Children with unilateral CI for over 5 years showed aided hearing thresholds below 35 dB HL and achieved 80% speech recognition in quiet.
- Performance decreased in noisy environments, highlighting challenges in complex listening situations.
- Long-term CI users reported better quality of life in hearing aspects compared to those with one year of CI use, particularly in perceived support.
Impact:
- Long-term CI use supports daily communication for children but does not fully bridge the gap with normal-hearing peers.
- Findings underscore the need for continued audiological support and societal resources for children with CIs.
- The study informs clinical practice by demonstrating the benefits of extended CI use and identifying areas for further intervention.
Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the long-term rehabilitation outcomes of children with cochlear implants（CI） and provide constructive guidance for clinical application. Methods:Fifteen children with unilateral CI over 5 years（CI group） were recruited. Ten children with normal hearing were recruited as the healthy control group. The project collected aided sound-field hearing thresholds and speech recognition scores using disyllabic words and C-HINT sentences with and without speech noise for 15 children with unilateral CI. In addition, children's guardians were requested to fill out the Mandarin Parental Perspectives questionnaire（MPP） in order to evaluate the hearing aspects of quality of life. MPP results from the 15 children were then compared with previous responses from 17 unilateral CI children whose overall CI wearing time was one year（CI control group）. Results:The aided pure-tone average（PTA） of the recruited children was below 35 dB HL, all children reached 80% for the speech recognition test in a quiet environment, yet their performance decreased in a noisy environment. Regarding the hearing aspects of the MPP questionnaire results, recruited children demonstrated better results than those from CI control group（P<0.05）. Speech noise had a significant impact on the recognition rate, and the CI group had higher recognition rate scores in the quiet environment than in the noise environment（two-syllable words t=18.81, P<0.001, short sentences t=16.48, P<0.001）. In the comparison of quality of life, in the dimension of "support for children", both the CI group and the CI control group can obtain better benefits, and there is no statistically significant difference between the groups（P>0.05）. The CI group benefited more significantly, and the scores were higher than those of the CI control group（P<0.05）. Conclusion:The long-term hearing outcome of children with CI is adequate for daily communication, but there is still a gap compared with hearing children of the same age, and they still need support from the entire society.
