Children with Hearing Loss Health-Related Quality of Life and Parental Perceptions

Olga María Alegre De La Rosa,Luis Miguel Villar Angulo

doi:10.5539/ies.v13n2p33

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate two objectives: first, the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and socio-demographic characteristics of children with cochlear implants (CIs) or hearing aids (HAs) on the Kid-KINDLR_children_7-13 questionnaire, and second to analyze parental background factors and the perceptions of their children with CIs or HAs on the Kid_Kiddo-KINDLR_Parents_ 7-17 questionnaire. The data consisted of 89 children with CIs and 63 children with HAs and their 89 parents, respectively. The characteristics of children and the parental factors included demographic and audiological variables. Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the two objectives. Children with CIs exhibited a perception of better HRQoL in comparison with children with HAs. Among other differences, children with CIs or HAs and their parents were significantly distinct in the variable Setting (t = 2.921, p < 0.010). Moreover, parents of children with CIs or HAs were significantly different among them in some background factors (i.e., age, socioeconomic status, and learning). Children with CIs and their parents demonstrated a perception of better HRQoL than children with HAs and their parents. These findings added to the existing knowledge about the benefits of CIs for children with hearing loss. Parents of children with CIs noted the significance of social and emotional development as a marker of well-being in their children’s lives.

Highlights

1.1 The ProblemThe notion of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) affects an individual’s health triangle, which includes bodily functions, social conditions, and mental fitness
The findings of the present study contradicted somewhat to that of Meserole et al.’s conclusion regarding the comparable HRQoL experience of cochlear implants (CIs) recipients and hearing peers. It would be thought-provoking to distinguish whether dissimilarities in HRQoL students’ ratings developed from differences in one questionnaire item as some researchers reported (Warner-Czyz et al, 2011), later studies have indicated that differences might be associated to other causes (Hornsby et al, 2014; Freeman et al, 2017)
The researchers estimated that children with CIs who were attended at the hospital in Gran Canaria had similar socio-demographic characteristics, while the socio-demographic variables were different for children with hearing aids (HAs)

Summary

Introduction

1.1 The ProblemThe notion of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) affects an individual’s health triangle, which includes bodily functions, social conditions, and mental fitness. Since the presentation of the quality of life (QoL) notion to researchers, over 20,000 documents documented this particular topic The psychometric properties of the KINDLR questionnaire satisfied the standards of reliability, validity, and sensitivity on scales for different contexts (languages, countries, diseases, and populations). Some researchers applied it to 2 population segments of Asian students comparing healthy students with children affected with diabetes (Wee, Lee, Ravens-Sieberer, Erhart, & Li, 2005). Researchers confirmed the total reliability and validity of each of the 6 subscales of the Chinese version of KINDL with healthy students (Lee, Chang, & Ravens-Sieberer, 2008). A research team verified the validity and reliability of the KIDSCREEN and KINDL questionnaires ies.ccsenet.org

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion