Self-rated hearing disability in candidates for cochlear implants

A previous scheme for quantification of hearing disability based on self-rating required extrapolation towards the upper end of the range due to lack of data from severely and profoundly impaired subjects. Suitable data have become available more recently from the UK programme evaluating cochlear implantation, thereby providing self-ratings by 465 people with 1-2-3-kHz average hearing threshold levels of 95 dB or greater. The ratings obtained fit the previous extrapolation extremely well. The scheme, therefore, can be applied with confidence to people throughout the range of hearing impairment.