Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between quality of life and speech perception outcomes in older adult cochlear implant (CI) recipients. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective review and cross-sectional survey study. SETTING: Tertiary care center. PATIENTS: Traditional CI recipients 65 years and older implanted between 2015 and 1Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL-35) survey completed within 1 year of most recent speech perception testing. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: AzBio in quiet and +10 dB SNR in the binaural everyday listening condition; CIQOL-35 responses. RESULTS: A total of 156 patients completed the survey within 1 year of most recent speech perception testing. Their demographics, otologic history, comorbidity index, and cognitive screen were collected alongside pre- and postoperative speech perception outcomes. Median age at implantation was 76.3 years (range, 65.0-97.2), and median age at CIQOL-35 was 78.0 years (range, 66.1-100.6). The mean CIQOL-Global was 48.3 (SD, 9.8), with scores across domains ranging from 34.9 (SD, 14.0) (Listening Effort) to 63.4 (SD, 19.3) (Social). Bivariate analysis showed that CIQOL-Global had positive correlations with AzBio quiet ( ρ = 0.413 [95% CI, 0.22-0.58]) and AzBio +10 dB SNR ( r = 0.537 [95% CI, 0.37-0.65]). Significance and strength of correlation remained true after controlling for age, cognitive screen, and duration of hearing loss using multivariable regression on 56 participants with complete data (standardized beta = 0.55). This model explained 38% of the CIQOL-35 global score variability ( R2 = 0.378). CONCLUSIONS: AzBio +10 dB SNR performance is positively correlated with CIQOL-35, but much of the variability in QOL remains unexplained.