Cochlear Implant Outcomes: A Focused Way of Looking at Speech Perception and Health-Related Quality of Life

The relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and speech perception in cochlear implant (CI) users is inconsistent across existing research. To investigate this relationship, we assessed HRQoL using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI) and speech perception using the Minimum Speech Test Battery (MSTB). The present study proposes an additional subscore to the GBI: CI global outcomes.

Seventeen bimodal CI users between the ages of 55 and 85 years participated in the study. All participants completed the GBI as well as the MSTB (e.g., AzBio sentence test in quiet and noise, the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise test [BKB-SIN], and the Consonant-Nucleus-Consonant test [CNC]). Correlations were calculated between HRQoL and speech perception measures.

Improvement in QoL as measured by the GBI CI global outcomes subscore significantly related to better performance on the AzBio in noise. No other significant relationships between the GBI and CI speech perception ability were observed.

CI global outcomes significantly related to speech perception ability in noise (AzBio), suggesting that this novel metric may be useful for capturing bimodal CI patient-reported outcomes.