Establishment of quantitative evaluation system for cochlear implant effectiveness for hearing-impaired children

Cochlear implant is currently the most widely proven interventions for auditory rehabilitation for children with severe sensorineural hearing impairment. However, there are obvious limitations in these current evaluation methods. This study aims to develop an evaluation system for quantitatively evaluating the effectiveness of cochlear implants for hearing-impaired children.

A correspondence questionnaire was developed based on an initial indicator system that was developed based on the literature focused on the evaluation of cochlear implant outcomes in children. Twenty-five experts in otology, clinical audiology, rehabilitation audiology, and mental health from nine provinces in China were consulted. The degree of authority and coordination of experts and the indicators and weights of the quantitative evaluation system were analyzed. Seventy-eight children aged 3-11 years after cochlear implantation were recruited from two centers in Hubei province to evaluate the reliability and validity of the quantitative evaluation system.

The opinions of experts converged after the second round of correspondence, and the coordination and authority of the expert consensus were met. The recall rate of the questionnaire was 100% for both rounds. Five secondary indicators, including auditory ability, verbal ability, behavioral assessment, learning capabilities, and quality of life, and 13 tertiary indicators were reserved for the evaluation of cochlear implant effectiveness. The weight of each indicator was calculated. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the quantitative evaluation system based on the standardized items was 0.930, and the three extracted common factors could explain 78.86% of the total variance.

An expert consensus-based evaluation system that can quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of cochlear implants in children has been developed with good reliability and validity.