Abstract
Background: Cochlear implantation (CI) and the accompanying rehabilitation has become a routine procedure in hearing restoration. Literature is sparse on elderly CI recipients focusing on the issue of age and their inclined auditory resolution, taking their diminished cognitive function into account, which requires adaptation of rehabilitation programs to overcome habituation. Objective: This study aims to show that a few adjustments in the therapy program towards age, mental, physical and auditory condition significantly improve music perception and overall auditory benefit, hence normal communication and social interactions can be found. Methods: Subjects implanted with a CI 65 years or older were compared to age-matched normal hearing subjects. Questionnaires were administered before and after ten music therapy sessions, to evaluate the participant’s music habits, the perception of sound quality and self-awareness and hearing implant satisfaction. Results: The greatest benefit was seen in participants’ gain in self-confidence and enjoyable music perception. Not only did the amount of listening to music increase, but also the impression of sound quality changed from poor up to good/very good sound quality. Conclusions: The music therapy was well accepted and resulted in beneficial subjective as well as objective outcomes towards hearing and music impression, hence improved quality of life.
Highlights
Cochlear implantation (CI) has become a routine procedure in the hearing rehabilitation of pre- and post-lingual deaf children as well as post-lingual deaf adults
Most of the users are in a good general medical condition and have high expectations and request to keep their standard in terms of quality of life (QoL), which, on an objective/measurable level, translates into good results in speech understanding and good music perception
The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effects of music therapy (MT) measured at music perception and self-awareness for elderly CI users and to develop a test battery which is easy to handle for this group
Summary
Cochlear implantation (CI) has become a routine procedure in the hearing rehabilitation of pre- and post-lingual deaf children as well as post-lingual deaf adults. It is well accepted that it requires training and rehabilitation to overcome a certain habituation effect until music is enjoyable [1–6]. For those patients, music therapy (MT) is highly recommended, and many articles report the positive effect of MT in rehabilitation programs, resulting in significant improvements in music perception in hearing-impaired listeners [5,7–10]. Literature is sparse on elderly CI recipients focusing on the issue of age and their inclined auditory resolution, taking their diminished cognitive function into account, which requires adaptation of rehabilitation programs to overcome habituation. Objective: This study aims to show that a few adjustments in the therapy program towards age, mental, physical and auditory condition significantly improve music perception and overall auditory benefit, normal communication and social interactions can be found. Conclusions: The music therapy was well accepted and resulted in beneficial subjective as well as objective outcomes towards hearing and music impression, improved quality of life
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