UK and US risk factors for hearing loss in neonatal intensive care unit infants.

Importance: Early detection and intervention of hearing loss may mitigate negative effects on children's development. Children who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as babies are particularly susceptible to hearing loss and risk factors are vital for surveillance.

Design, Setting And Participants: This single-centre retrospective cohort study included data from 142 inborn infants who had been admitted to the NICU in a tertiary regional referral centre.

Listening efficiency in adult cochlear-implant users compared with normally-hearing controls at ecologically relevant signal-to-noise ratios.

Introduction: Due to having to work with an impoverished auditory signal, cochlear-implant (CI) users may experience reduced speech intelligibility and/or increased listening effort in real-world listening situations, compared to their normally-hearing (NH) peers. These two challenges to perception may be usefully integrated in a measure of listening efficiency: conceptually, the amount of accuracy achieved for a certain amount of effort expended.

Methods: We describe a novel approach to quantifying listening efficiency based on the rate of evidence accumulation toward a correct response in a linear ballistic accumulator (LBA) model of choice decision-making.

Using Rasch Analysis to Assess and Improve the Measurement Properties of a Questionnaire With Few Items: The York Binaural Hearing-Related Quality of Life (YBHRQL) Questionnaire.

Objectives: The York Binaural Hearing-Related Quality of Life questionnaire is a condition-specific preference-based instrument sensitive to advantages of binaural over monaural hearing. Respondents use 5-point scales to report the difficulty experienced with three dimensions of listening that are easier or more successful when hearing is binaural: understanding speech in spatially separated noise, localizing sources of sound in azimuth, and the associated effort and fatigue. Previously, a preference value was estimated for each combination of dimension and level so that a value of binaural utility could be assigned to a respondent to inform analyses of cost effectiveness.

Exploring listening-related fatigue in children with and without hearing loss using self-report and parent-proxy measures.

Children with hearing loss appear to experience greater fatigue than children with normal hearing (CNH). Listening-related fatigue is often associated with an increase in effortful listening or difficulty in listening situations. This has been observed in children with bilateral hearing loss (CBHL) and, more recently, in children with unilateral hearing loss (CUHL).

Multiple congenital anomalies and adverse developmental outcomes are associated with neonatal intensive care admission and unilateral hearing loss.

Aim: To determine congenital and developmental outcomes of children with Unilateral Hearing Loss (UHL) who were admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Method: Retrospective, single-site study that followed 25 children with permanent congenital UHL a NICU admission to a NICU of Nottingham University Hospital. Birth and two-year developmental follow-up data were collected.

The Core Rehabilitation Outcome Set for Single-Sided Deafness (CROSSSD) study: International consensus on outcome measures for trials of interventions for adults with single-sided deafness.

Background: Single-sided deafness (SSD) has functional, psychological, and social consequences. Interventions for adults with SSD include hearing aids and auditory implants. Benefits and harms (outcome domains) of these interventions are until now reported inconsistently in clinical trials.

A global survey of healthcare professionals undertaking MRI of patients with cochlear implants: a heterogeneity of practice and opinions.

Objective: To capture practice and opinions around the current clinical use of MRI in patients with cochlear implants (CIs), and to characterise patient progression from referral to image reporting.

Methods: An online survey recruited 237 healthcare professionals between 9 December 2019 and 9 September 2020. Descriptive statistics and informal thematic analyses were conducted.

Perceived Listening Difficulties of Adult Cochlear-Implant Users Under Measures Introduced to Combat the Spread of COVID-19.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, public-health measures introduced to stem the spread of the disease caused profound changes to patterns of daily-life communication. This paper presents the results of an online survey conducted to document adult cochlear-implant (CI) users' perceived listening difficulties under four communication scenarios commonly experienced during the pandemic, specifically when talking: with someone wearing a facemask, under social/physical distancing guidelines, via telephone, and via video call. Results from ninety-four respondents indicated that people considered their in-person listening experiences in some common everyday scenarios to have been significantly worsened by the introduction of mask-wearing and physical distancing.

Telemedicine for Adults With Cochlear Implants in the United Kingdom (CHOICE): Protocol for a Prospective Interventional Multisite Study.

Background: Cochlear implants provide hearing to approximately 750,000 people with deafness worldwide; these patients require lifelong follow-up. Care for adults with implants in the United Kingdom occurs at one of 19 centers, which may be far from the patients' homes. In a previous randomized controlled trial, we successfully introduced person-centered care.

Investigating Cortical Responses to Noise-Vocoded Speech in Children with Normal Hearing Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).

Whilst functional neuroimaging has been used to investigate cortical processing of degraded speech in adults, much less is known about how these signals are processed in children. An enhanced understanding of cortical correlates of poor speech perception in children would be highly valuable to oral communication applications, including hearing devices. We utilised vocoded speech stimuli to investigate brain responses to degraded speech in 29 normally hearing children aged 6-12 years.

Development and Critical Evaluation of a Condition-Specific Preference-Based Measure Sensitive to Binaural Hearing in Adults: The York Binaural Hearing-Related Quality-of-Life System.

Objectives: The widely-used generic preference-based measures of health-related quality of life-the EuroQol Descriptive System (EQ-5D) and the Health Utilities Index (HUI3)-are limited in their response to technologies that improve hearing. The EQ-5D lacks construct validity for hearing, while the HUI3 is restricted by a ceiling effect and by using speech reception as the only evidence of the ability to hear. Consequently, neither measure consistently registers benefits from binaural hearing, such as those from bilateral versus unilateral cochlear implantation.

Redesigning a Web-Based Stakeholder Consensus Meeting About Core Outcomes for Clinical Trials: Formative Feedback Study.

Background: Clinical trials that assess the benefits and harms of an intervention do so by measuring and reporting outcomes. Inconsistent selection and diversity in the choice of outcomes make it challenging to directly compare interventions. To achieve an agreed core set of outcomes, a consensus methodology is recommended, comprising a web-based Delphi survey and a face-to-face consensus meeting.

A Scoping Review of Studies Comparing Outcomes for Children With Severe Hearing Loss Using Hearing Aids to Children With Cochlear Implants.

Objectives: Clinical practice regarding children's candidature for cochlear implantation varies internationally, albeit with a recent global trend toward implanting children with more residual hearing than in the past. The provision of either hearing aids or cochlear implants can influence a wide range of children's outcomes. However, guidance on eligibility and suitability for implantation is often based on a small number of studies and a limited range of speech perception measures.

Parametric Assessment of the Effect of Cochlear Implant Positioning on Brain MRI Artefacts at 3 T.

Background: Brain magnetic resonance imaging in patients with cochlear implants (CIs) is impacted by image artefacts.

Hypothesis: The optimal positioning of the CI to minimize artefacts is unknown. This study aimed to characterize the dependence of the extent and distribution of the artefact on CI positioning.

Systematic review of outcome domains and instruments used in designs of clinical trials for interventions that seek to restore bilateral and binaural hearing in adults with unilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss ('single-sided deafness').

Background: This systematic review aimed to identify, compare and contrast outcome domains and outcome instruments reported in studies investigating interventions that seek to restore bilateral (two-sided) and/or binaural (both ears) hearing in adults with single-sided deafness (SSD). Findings can inform the development of evidence-based guidance to facilitate design decisions for confirmatory trials.

Methods: Records were identified by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, ClinicalTrials.

An exploration of psychological symptom-based phenotyping of adult cochlear implant users with and without tinnitus using a machine learning approach.

The identification of phenotypes within populations with troublesome tinnitus is an important step towards individualizing tinnitus treatments to achieve optimal outcomes. However, previous application of clustering algorithms has called into question the existence of distinct tinnitus-related phenotypes. In this study, we attempted to characterize patients' symptom-based phenotypes as subpopulations in a Gaussian mixture model (GMM), and subsequently performed a comparison with tinnitus reporting.

Associations Between Hearing Health and Well-Being in Unilateral Hearing Impairment.

Objectives: To determine population-based risks of adverse effects on hearing and well-being outcomes associated with unilateral hearing impairment.

Design: A group of 40- to 69-year-old adults (n = 861) who reported being able to hear only in one ear and having speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in noise indicating normal hearing in that ear (SRTN/-) was selected from the UK Biobank cohort. The UK Biobank participants with SRTs indicating either normal (SRTN/N, n = 95,514) or symmetrically impaired hearing in both ears (SRTI/I, n = 17,429) were selected as comparison groups.

The Benefit of Cross-Modal Reorganization on Speech Perception in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients Revealed Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy.

Cochlear implants (CIs) are the most successful treatment for severe-to-profound deafness in children. However, speech outcomes with a CI often lag behind those of normally-hearing children. Some authors have attributed these deficits to the takeover of the auditory temporal cortex by vision following deafness, which has prompted some clinicians to discourage the rehabilitation of pediatric CI recipients using visual speech.

Recommended Personal Protective Equipment for Cochlear Implant and Other Mastoid Surgery During the COVID-19 Era.

Objectives/hypothesis: The overall aim of this study was to evaluate personal protective equipment (PPE) that may facilitate the safe recommencement of cochlear implantation in the COVID-19 era, with the broader goal of minimizing the period of auditory deprivation in prelingually deaf children and reducing the risk of cochlear ossification in individuals following meningitis.

Methods: The study design comprised 1) an objective assessment of mastoid drilling-induced droplet spread conducted during simulated cochlear implant (CI) surgery and its mitigation via the use of a protective drape tent and 2) an evaluation of three PPE configurations by otologists while performing mastoid drilling on ex vivo temporal bones. The various PPE solutions were assessed in terms of their impact on communication, vital physiological parameters, visual acuity and fields, and acceptability to surgeons using a systematic risk-based approach.

Insomnia, Anxiety and Depression in Adult Cochlear Implant Users With Tinnitus.

Objective: Determine the prevalence of clinical insomnia and its associations with anxiety, depression, and tinnitus in adult cochlear implant (CI) users.

Design: Self-reported information on tinnitus, sleep, and demographic variables was collected from adult CI users (n = 127). Tinnitus presence, its persistence, related emotional distress, and difficulties with sleep were assessed using questions from the UK Biobank study (www.

Correction to: Core Rehabilitation Outcome Set for Single Sided Deafness (CROSSSD) study: protocol for an international consensus on outcome measures for single sided deafness interventions using a modified Delphi survey.

Following the publication of our article [1], the authors have notified us of a typo in the third bullet point of the Consensus Criteria section.

Core Rehabilitation Outcome Set for Single Sided Deafness (CROSSSD) study: protocol for an international consensus on outcome measures for single sided deafness interventions using a modified Delphi survey.

Background: Single-sided deafness (SSD) describes the presence of a unilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. SSD disrupts spatial hearing and understanding speech in background noise. It has functional, psychological and social consequences.

Consensus practice parameter: audiological assessment and management of unilateral hearing loss in children.

Provide recommendations to audiologists for the management of children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL) and for needed research that can lend further insight into important unanswered questions. An international panel of experts on children with UHL was convened following a day and a half of presentations on the same. The evidence reviewed for this parameter was gathered through web-based literature searches specifically designed for academic and health care resources, recent systematic reviews of literature, and new research presented at the conference that underwent peer review for publication by the time of this writing.