Health-related quality of life and mental distress in patients with partial deafness: preliminary findings

The aim of the study was to evaluate mental distress and health-related quality of life in patients with bilateral partial deafness (high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss) before cochlear implantation, with respect to their audiological performance and time of onset of the hearing impairment. Thirty-one patients and 31 normal-hearing individuals were administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory (STAI) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). Patients also completed the Nijmegen-Cochlear-Implant-Questionnaire (NCIQ), a tool for evaluation of quality of life related to hearing loss. Patients revealed increased depressive and anxiety symptoms, as well as decreased health-related quality of life (psychological health, physical health), in comparison with their healthy counterparts (t tests, p < 0.05). Furthermore, a General Linear Model demonstrated in patients with a prelingual onset of hearing loss enhanced self-evaluated social interactions and activity (NCIQ), when their outcomes were contrasted with those obtained in individuals with postlingual partial deafness (p < 0.05). The study failed to show any effect of collateral tinnitus. Patients not using hearing aids had better audiological performance and, therefore, better sound perception and speech production, as measured with NCIQ. There was no effect of hearing aid use with respect to mental distress. Additional statistically significant correlations seen in patients included those between a steeper slope hearing loss configuration (averaged pure-tone thresholds at 1 and 2 kHz with subtracted threshold at 0.5 kHz) and better audiometric speech detection, between audiometric thresholds and the subjectively rated sound perception (NCIQ), as well as left-ear audiometric word recognition scores and the subjectively perceived ability to recognize advanced sounds (NCIQ). In addition, a longer duration of postlingual deafness, as well as a younger age at the onset were both related to worse speech detection thresholds. The results of the study provide evidence that successful rehabilitation in patients with partial deafness might have to go beyond the standard speech therapy. Enhancement of the regular diagnostic assessment with additional psychological tools is highly recommended. Further investigation is required as to the role of functional residual hearing, hearing aid use and tinnitus, in relation to future outcomes of cochlear implantation.