Preferred Name
Rebecca Civil
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-9-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Audiology (AuD)
Department
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Advisor(s)
Yingjiu Nie
Lincoln Gray
Stephanie Moody
Abstract
This study investigates changes in subjective health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among cochlear implant (CI) recipients over extended periods post-implantation. While existing literature primarily focuses on the initial or short-term improvements in QoL post-implantation compared to pre-implantation, this study looks into the stability and potential decline of QoL over time. Although the literature provides limited evidence on longitudinal trends in QoL among CI recipients over extended periods exceeding 12 months post-implantation, that limited evidence suggests a trend of decline in QoL scores, even as objective audiological measures tend to stay consistently high in the same population. Utilizing data from 25 CI recipients, including both unilateral and bilateral users, this research investigates changes in QoL scores over extended periods (24 months post-implantation) and explores potential predictors of the variability seen in QoL measures. Results from this study indicate a significant decline in HRQoL scores at 24 months post-implantation when compared to their maximum HRQoL score obtained previously post-implantation in all six subdomains measured by the NCIQ. Objective measures such as speech recognition and age of implantation did not significantly predict QoL variability over time. However, a notable finding reveals that bilateral CI users appear to experience smaller declines in QoL scores over time compared to unilateral users. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing and understanding the long-term trajectory of QoL in CI recipients, enabling clinicians to provide more accurate counseling regarding realistic expectations and informed intervention strategies to mitigate or avoid their CI patients experiencing declines in HRQoL over extended time.
Recommended Citation
Civil, Rebecca, "Assessing trends in cochlear implant recipients' quality of life score over time" (2024). Dissertations, 2020-current. 137.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/diss202029/137
