Health-Related Quality of Life Evaluation in Children with Cochlear Implants

BACKGROUND: To compare the quality of life scores of children with monoaural cochlear implants (CIs) aged 4-16 with those of normally hearing (NH) children and parents' reports. METHODS: The KINDL-R questionnaire that measures health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was delivered to 72 children aged 4-16 years and their parents. The children were divided into 3 subgroups of 4-7, 8-11, and 12-16 years and asked to report their quality of life from their own perspectives. The parents were divided into 2 subgroups for 4-7 aged and 8-16 aged children and were asked to report their child's quality of life status from their perspectives. The QoL scores of children with CI in the 3 subgroups were compared with the scores of their parents and NH peers. RESULTS: The total scores of children with CIs in all subgroups were significantly worse than NH peers. The total scores of parents and children with CIs in all subgroups revealed no statistically significant differences. In the correlation analysis, the age of implantation was negatively correlated with the total score both in 8-11 (ρ: -0.777) and 12-16 year subgroups (ρ: -0.591). Similarly, the implant usage duration was positively correlated with the total score in all age groups. CONCLUSION: Children with CI experience worse QoL status than their NH peers. The possible causes of the lower QoL scores following cochlear implantation must be investigated. Reports from parents on their children's QoL status are reliable.