Children With Single-Sided Deafness Use Their Cochlear Implant
Jane Polonenko, Melissa
Children With Single-Sided Deafness Use Their Cochlear Implant
Objectives: To assess acceptance of a cochlear implant (CI) by children
with single-sided deafness (SSD) as measured by duration of CI use
across daily listening environments.
Design: Datalogs for 7 children aged 1.1 to 14.5 years (mean ± SD:
5.9 ± 5.9 years old), who had SSD and were implanted in their deaf ear,
were anonymized and extracted from their CI processors. Data for all
available follow-up clinical appointments were included, ranging from
two to six visits. Measures calculated from each datalog included frequency
and duration of time the coil disconnected from the internal
device, average daily CI use, and both duration (hr/day) and percentage
of CI use (% daily use) in different intensity ranges and environment
types. Linear mixed effects regression analyses were used to evaluate
the relationships between CI experience, daily CI use, frequency of coiloffs,
and duration of coil-off time. Nonlinear regression analyses were
used to evaluate CI use with age in different acoustic environments.
Results: Children with SSD used their CI on average 7.4 hr/day. Older
children used their CI for longer periods of the day than younger children.
Longitudinal data indicated consistent CI use from the date of CI activation.
Frequency of coil-offs reduced with CI experience, but did not significantly
contribute to hours of coil-off time. Children used their CI longest
in environments that were moderately loud (50 to 70 dB A) and classified
as containing speech-in-noise. Preschoolers tended to spend less time
in quiet but more time in music than infants/toddlers and adolescents.
Conclusions: Children with SSD consistently use their CI upon activation
in a variety of environments commonly experienced by children. CI
use in children with SSD resembles reported bilateral hearing aid use in
children but is longer than reported hearing aid use in children with less
severe unilateral hearing loss, suggesting that (1) the normal-hearing
ear did not detract from consistent CI use; and (2) a greater asymmetry
between ears presents a significant impairment that may facilitate device
use to access bilateral sound.
Children With Single-Sided Deafness Use Their Cochlear Implant
Objectives: To assess acceptance of a cochlear implant (CI) by children
with single-sided deafness (SSD) as measured by duration of CI use
across daily listening environments.
Design: Datalogs for 7 children aged 1.1 to 14.5 years (mean ± SD:
5.9 ± 5.9 years old), who had SSD and were implanted in their deaf ear,
were anonymized and extracted from their CI processors. Data for all
available follow-up clinical appointments were included, ranging from
two to six visits. Measures calculated from each datalog included frequency
and duration of time the coil disconnected from the internal
device, average daily CI use, and both duration (hr/day) and percentage
of CI use (% daily use) in different intensity ranges and environment
types. Linear mixed effects regression analyses were used to evaluate
the relationships between CI experience, daily CI use, frequency of coiloffs,
and duration of coil-off time. Nonlinear regression analyses were
used to evaluate CI use with age in different acoustic environments.
Results: Children with SSD used their CI on average 7.4 hr/day. Older
children used their CI for longer periods of the day than younger children.
Longitudinal data indicated consistent CI use from the date of CI activation.
Frequency of coil-offs reduced with CI experience, but did not significantly
contribute to hours of coil-off time. Children used their CI longest
in environments that were moderately loud (50 to 70 dB A) and classified
as containing speech-in-noise. Preschoolers tended to spend less time
in quiet but more time in music than infants/toddlers and adolescents.
Conclusions: Children with SSD consistently use their CI upon activation
in a variety of environments commonly experienced by children. CI
use in children with SSD resembles reported bilateral hearing aid use in
children but is longer than reported hearing aid use in children with less
severe unilateral hearing loss, suggesting that (1) the normal-hearing
ear did not detract from consistent CI use; and (2) a greater asymmetry
between ears presents a significant impairment that may facilitate device
use to access bilateral sound.