F. Zhao et al., THE USE OF QUALITATIVE QUESTIONNAIRES IN PATIENTS HAVING AND BEING CONSIDERED FOR COCHLEAR IMPLANTS, Clinical otolaryngology and allied sciences, 22(3), 1997, pp. 254-259
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.