Beyond hearing: the impact of Cochlear implantation on the quality of life of users and their communication partners after 1 year.

Objective: To assess the impact of cochlear implantation (CI) and speech perception outcomes on the quality of life (QoL) of adult CI users and their communication partners (CP) one-year post-implantation.

Design: This research is part of a prospective multicenter study in The Netherlands, called SMILE (Societal Merit of Intervention for hearing Loss Evaluation).

Study Sample: Eighty adult CI users completed speech perception testing and the Nijmegen Cochear Implant Questionnaire (NCIQ). Fifty-four CPs completed the Hearing Impairment Impact - Significant Other Profile (HII-SOP).

Results: CI resulted in a large improvement in the QoL of both users and CPs. Despite this, some users still reported difficulties in the NCIQ sub-domains Social Interactions, Activity Limitations and Self-esteem. Similarly, some CPs still reported moderate and severe third-party disability on the HII-SOP. Additionally, the correlation between speech perception results and self-reported QoL was weak to negligible for both groups.

Conclusions: Speech perception in quiet is not an accurate measure of real-life success with a CI. A subset of CI users and CPs still experience substantial QoL challenges regardless of speech perception performance. To improve counselling and intervention, QoL measures should be a standard part of the CI care pathway for CI users and their CPs.