Quality of communication life in prelingually deafened adults with cochlear implant

Objectives: The present study was designed to compare the quality of communication life (QCL) between prelingually deafened adults with cochlear implants (ACI) and adults with normal-hearing (ANH), seeking to determine the relationship between QCL and communication abilities of ACI while investigating the predictors of QCL. Methods: The QCL scale of 18 ACI and 18 age-matched ANH was measured. Communication abilities of ACI, such as listening, receptive vocabulary and articulation were also evaluated. A t-test was conducted to examine the differences between the groups according to sub-factors of QCL. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationship between the communication ability and QCL of ACI. Finally, multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate predictor factors of QCL for ACI. Results: ACI scored significantly lower than ANH on the QCL scale. They also showed significantly lower scores among the sub-factors of QCL: communication efficacy, daily life participation, and communication attitude. Among the communication abilities, listening ability (monosyllabic word, bisyllabic word, sentence) and articulation accuracy were correlated with QCL. Also, bisyllabic word listening ability was significantly correlated with QCL, predicting 30.2% of QCL. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest the need to improve QCL of ACI by participating in aural rehabilitation programs and that improving listening ability will have a positive influence on the overall quality of life of adults with cochlear implant.