TY  - JOUR
A1  - Issing, Christian
A1  - Holtz, Svea
A1  - Loth, Andreas German
A1  - Baumann, Uwe
A1  - Pantel, Johannes
A1  - Stöver, Timo
T1  - Long-term effects on the quality of life following cochlear implant treatment in older patients
T2  - European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology and head & neck
N2  - Purpose: Even in older patients, hearing rehabilitation with a cochlear implant has become an established method for deafened or severely hearing-impaired patients. In addition to the hearing improvement, numerous other effects of CI treatment can be observed in clinical routine. In the literature, there is multiple evidence for a rapid and significant improvement in quality of life with CI treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term effects of hearing rehabilitation using CI on the quality of life in older patients (≥ 65 years).
Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study examined 84 patients between the age of 65 and 101 years who received unilateral CI treatment for the first time between one and 10 years ago. The World Health Organization Quality-of-Life Scale-Old (WHOQL-OLD) was used to determine the quality of life. The study cohort was divided into three groups to compare the quality of life over time: group I (1–3 years after CI treatment), group II (4–6 years after CI treatment), and group III (7–10 years after CI treatment). In addition, the data from this study were compared with the results of our previous study (Issing et al. 2020) in which we focused on the first 6 months after CI treatment.
Results: In all three groups, there was a significant improvement in monosyllabic discrimination within 1 year after CI fitting (p > 0.001). No significant differences were found between the three groups. There were no significant differences between the three groups in the WHOQOL-OLD total score (p = 0.487) or any of the other six facets. Moreover, no significant differences were found compared to the study group of our previous study 6 months after CI treatment.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates the long-term stability of the improved quality of life following unilateral CI treatment in patients aged 65 years or older.
KW  - Cochlear implant
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Elderly
KW  - Older patients
KW  - Long-term results
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/69623
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-696230
SN  - 1434-4726
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 279
IS  - 11
SP  - 5135
EP  - 5144
PB  - Springer
CY  - Berlin ; Heidelberg
ER  -