Restricted Speech Recognition in Noise and Quality of Life of Hearing-Impaired Children and Adolescents With Cochlear Implants – Need for Studies Addressing This Topic With Valid Pediatric Quality of Life Instruments

Clara Havas,Maria Huber

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02085

Abstract

Cochlear implants (CI) support the development of oral language in hearing-impaired children. However, even with CI, speech recognition in noise (SRiN) is limited. This raised the question, whether these restrictions are related to the quality of life (QoL) of children and adolescents with CI and how SRiN and QoL are related to each other. As a result of a systematic literature research only three studies were found, indicating positive moderating effects between SRiN and QoL of young CI users. Thirty studies addressed the quality of life of children and adolescents with CI. Following the criteria of the World Health Organization (WHO) for pediatric health related quality of life HRQoL (1994) only a minority used validated child centered and age appropriate QoL instruments. Moreover, despite the consensus that usually children and adolescents are the most prominent informants of their own QoL (parent-reports complement the information of the children) only a minority of investigators used self-reports. Restricted SRiN may be a burden for the QoL of children and adolescents with CI. Up to now the CI community does not seem to have focused on a possible impairment of QoL in young CI users. Further studies addressing this topic are urgently needed, which is also relevant for parents, clinicians, therapists, teachers, and policy makers. Additionally investigators should use valid pediatric QoL instruments. Most of the young CI users are able to inform about their quality of life themselves.

Highlights

A cochlear implant (CI) is a prosthesis for the hair cells in the inner ear for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss
We summarize the three papers reporting a relationship between speech recognition in noise (SRiN) and HRQoL in young Cochlear implants (CI)-users, which are the main focus of this article
In a systematic literature research, we identified only three papers indicating positive moderating effects between SRiN and quality of life (QoL) of young CI users

Summary

Introduction

A cochlear implant (CI) is a prosthesis for the hair cells in the inner ear for individuals with severe to profound hearing loss. CIs support the development of oral language in hearing-impaired children (e.g., Geers et al, 2016; Cupples et al, 2018; Ruben, 2018), so that children with bilateral CIs perform better than children with unilateral CI SRiN depends on the language abilities of young CI users (Ching et al, 2017), duration of CI use, education of the mother, use of hearing aids before CI, pre-implant auditory threshold (Chen et al, 2014) and bilateral CI (vs unilateral CI, Lovett et al, 2010; Sparreboom et al, 2012; Jacobs et al, 2016). In the case of normal hearing children SRiN depends on their cognitive abilities (Roman et al, 2017)

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