[The impact of implantable technologies on the quality of life in the patients with hearing loss]

Evaluation of the Impact of Cochlear Implantation on Patients' Working Life: A Cross-Sectional Study

Hearing loss that arises from various causes at different stages of life has a direct impact on individuals' physical and mental well-being. This paper aimed to evaluate the employment, workplace adaptation, productivity, and professional success of individuals who have hearing loss and whose hearing loss is corrected with a cochlear implant. In this cross-sectional study, data were collected between November 2022 and March 2023 with the participation of individuals with cochlear implants living in several settlements in all regions of Türkiye. A total of 142 participants with severe hearing loss who were corrected with a cochlear implant were included in this study. The survey method was used to collect data for the study. The questionnaire consisted of 32 questions and was distributed to the participants online. In the first part of the questionnaire (questions 1-10), the general characteristics of implant patients were investigated. In the second part (questions 11-32), the positive or negative effects of implantation on the work lives of the participants were evaluated. Almost half of the research group (49.3%, n = 70) consisted of women, and the mean age of the participants was determined to be 35.8 ± 14.8 years. There was no significant difference between gender, educational status, implanted side, working time, working style (physical, desk), and factors affecting work life (p > 0.05). Professional satisfaction and success at work increased significantly more in those with acquired hearing loss (p = 0.010). Post-implantation workplace compliance, success, and productivity were found to be higher in those with acquired hearing loss (p = 0.013). Hearing loss had a significantly less negative impact on work performance in those implanted in childhood than in those implanted in adulthood (p = 0.043). It was observed that hearing loss had a greater negative impact on the work life of married people (p = 0.006). Cochlear implantation greatly enhances workplace satisfaction, increases self-confidence, and has a positive impact on the future of profoundly deaf individuals.

Translation and cultural adaptation of "Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory" into Brazilian Portuguese

OBJECTIVE

Translate and cross-culturally adapt into Brazilian Portuguese the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory instrument used for the quality-of-life assessment after pediatric ENT interventions.

METHOD

This is a methodological study of translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the GCBI instrument following seven stages: 1) Translation of two versions by two independent translators, 2) Elaboration of a consensual synthetized version, 3) Assessment of the synthetized version by experts, 4) Assessment by the target audience, 5) Back-translation, 6) Pilot study and 7) Use of the instrument. The final version of the instrument was answered by a sample of 28 people responsible for children aged from 2 to 7 years, submitted to tonsillectomy between January 2019 and December 2021, in a public hospital in Porto Alegre. The collection considered patients with a minimum of 6-months and a maximum of 3-years of postoperative follow-up.

RESULT

The instrument final version was compared to the original version showing semantic equivalence, absence of consistent translation difficulties and appropriate cross-cultural adaptation, and well understood by the target audience. The application of the questionnaire in the sample showed a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.944 corresponding to a high degree of reliability of the instrument.

CONCLUSION

The translation and cross-cultural adaptation showed semantic appropriateness and its use when assessing ENT postoperative results in a pediatric population showed high reliability of the instrument.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4

Exploring the Factor Structure of the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory: New Recommendations for Reporting Results

OBJECTIVE

Patient-reported outcomes can be useful for reporting benefit from non-life-saving interventions, but often they report a single overall score, which means that much information on the specific areas of benefit is lost. Our aim was to perform a new factor analysis on the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory (GCBI) to create subscales reflecting domains of benefit. Further aims were to assess the internal consistency of the GCBI, and to develop guidelines for reporting both a total score and sub-scales in future studies.

METHODS

We collected 4 existing datasets of GCBI data from children who have undergone tonsillectomy, ventilation tube insertion, pinnaplasty, and submucous diathermy to the inferior turbinates. We performed exploratory factor analysis with principal axis factoring with varimax rotation, we sought redundancy in question items, and we measured internal consistency.

RESULTS

Using the combined dataset of 772 cases, we found 4 factors which accounted for 64% of the variance and which we have labeled "Psycho-social," "Physical health," "Behavior," and "Vitality." Subscale results varied in predictable ways depending on the nature of the intervention. Cronbach's alpha was 0.928. Item-total correlations were high, and no item could be deleted to improve alpha. Floor effects were apparent for various questions but were not consistent between different interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

The GCBI contains a range of questions which each add value in different clinical interventions. We can now make recommendations for reporting the results of the GCBI and its 4 new subscales.

[The management of patients with congenital malformations of the external and middle ear]

Rehabilitation of the patients suffering from with congenital malformations of external and middle ear is a specific area of medicine requiring special knowledge and skills of the audiologists and ear surgeons. This article highlights the issues of epidemiology, classification and methods for the rehabilitation of patients presenting with this pathology that reflect our own experience and the methodology based on it for all phases of both functional and aesthetic surgical inerventions. Special attention is given to the assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment, as part of the evaluation of the quality of medical services. The results were demonstrated in 56 patients aged from 5 to 17 years. 32 of them underwent reconstructive, hearing improving surgery (meatotympanoplasty), 24 patients were managed by means of the implantation of the bone-anchored hearing systems. The assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment was conducted according to the algorithm developed by the authors, including free field pure tone audiometry and validated questionnaires for the assessment of the quality of life (the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory).

[The effectiveness of the speech therapist and audiologist collaboration during speech processor fitting]

The aim of the study was to present the first clinical experience of clinical trials of new methodology of the CI speech processor fitting with the new software Nucleus Fitting Software - NFS. At all 4 fittings sessions there were 15 children. During the fitting sessions 2 techniques were used - with the new NFS software and classical technique were used. The efficiency and need of collaboration of the speech therapist and the audiologist in the CI fitting sessions is proved. Results of inspection have shown that in 76.6% parents have established emotional cooperation with the children. Most of children have begun to seize the spontaneous speech in natural communication (60% - words, 23.3% - simple phrases). The results received by us allow to recommend the offered technique of the facilitated speech processor fitting technique for widespread introduction in clinical practice.