Well-being and quality of life in students with a cochlear implant

Abstract

In order to know the well-being and quality of life (WQoL) of students with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids (HA), the KINDLR questionnaire was administered to a sample of 187 CI students and to another sample of 113 students with HA. A modified KINDLR questionnaire was also applied to 156 parents to compare their opinions with those of their children. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was applied to determine if there were differences between the independent groups (students and their parents) in more than one continuous dependent variable (KINDLR dimensions). In addition, a Kappa index and an intraclass correlation coefficient examined whether there was agreement between the students and their parents by means of assessing variability for WQoL improvement. Students with CI perceived WQoL differently compared to students using HA. There was an agreement between the opinions of both groups of students and the opinions of their parents on the total WQoL. The results of this study can be used to create personal, family and school counseling strategies to improve WQoL of students with hearing difficulties.