THE USE OF QUALITATIVE QUESTIONNAIRES IN PATIENTS HAVING AND BEING CONSIDERED FOR COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

Within this study we have examined the particular hearing complaints o f patients being considered for a cochlear implant and the specific be nefits/shortcomings experienced by implanted patients using open-ended questionnaires. As we expected, the difficulty of hearing general con versation was the most common individual hearing complaint. However, 4 5% of complaints were concentrated in the 'psychosocial' category, whi ch was significantly higher than that found among general audiological rehabilitation patients. The average number of benefits listed by pat ients having implants was significantly higher than that of the shortc omings. Moreover, the main benefits listed were focused on the acousti cal and psychological factors, e.g. 'environmental sound awareness','g eneral conversation easier' and 'feeling of self-confidence'. The main shortcomings were related to the acoustical and practical areas, e.g. hearing difficulty in noisy background, processor being cumbersome.