Cochlear implantation and quality of life in postlingually deaf adults: long-term follow-up.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate long-term quality of life (QoL) in postlingually deaf adults after entering the cochlear implantation (CI) program. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Follow-up study from 1998 onwards in tertiary university medical center. Long-term CI users, patients who have not received a CI, and relatively short-term CI users were re-evaluated six years after initial data collection in 1998 by using three questionnaires (NCIQ, HUI3, and SF36) and speech perception tests. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: In general, the beneficial effect of CI remained stable during long-term follow-up, though scores on the questionnaires decreased slightly. Outcomes before and after cochlear implantation were significantly different. The group without a CI demonstrated slightly decreasing trends in outcomes. Long-term speech perception performance improved in time. SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study to investigate long-term follow-up of CI patients, in all aspects of QoL combined with speech perception performance, in comparison with postlingually deaf adults without CI.