Systematic Review of Quality of Life in Bone Anchored Hearing: Conductive vs. Unilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the differences in disease-specific quality of life (QoL) benefits experienced by bone-anchored hearing implant (BAHI) users between those diagnosed with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (U-SNHL) and those with conductive/mixed hearing loss (CHL).

Eligible studies were searched for in Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Cochrane (Wiley), Global Health (Ovid), Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Africa Wide Information (Ebsco) and Global Index Medicus (WHO) from inception to October 23, 2022. Updated searches were performed on November 9, 2023, and July 11, 2024.

There were no restrictions on language. PRISMA standards were followed, and screening was conducted by two independent reviewers in Rayyan, with a third reviewer resolving conflicts. Risk of bias was assessed using RoBANS. Articles were included if patients were implanted with a BAHI and administered a validated, disease-specific QoL measure.

One thousand, three hundred twelve articles were identified after duplicate removal, with 56 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. Eight different disease-specific QoL measures were administered. In all, the APHAB's "Global" (p = 0.0002), EC (p < 0.00001), and BN (p = 0.02) scores, as well as the GBI's "Global" (p = 0.0001), "General" (p = 0.002), and "Physical" (p = 0.02) scores were significantly different between U-SNHL and CHL populations.

These results demonstrated disease-specific QoL differences between BAHI users with U-SNHL and CHL. Specifically, patients with CHL reported greater benefits in domains pertaining to communication ease, the clarity of sound, and their overall health and psychosocial status.