Dataset Information

Quality of cochlear implant rehabilitation under COVID-19 conditions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The rehabilitation process following cochlear implant (CI) surgery is carried out in a multimodal therapy according to German national guidelines and includes technical and medical aftercare. In times of the corona pandemic surgery and rehabilitation appointments were cancelled or delayed leading to a more difficult access to auditory rehabilitation. Newly implemented hygiene modalities due to the SARS-CoV?2 pandemic have changed medical aftercare and the rehabilitation process. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of rehabilitation under corona conditions.

Material and methods

An anonymous survey of adult cochlear implant patients was carried out by a non-standardized questionnaire. Demographics were analyzed and the quality of medical aftercare, speech therapy, technical aftercare, psychological support and the hygiene modalities were compared to previous rehabilitation stays.

Results

In total 109 patients completed the questionnaire. The quality of rehabilitation and individual therapy were rated as qualitatively similar or improved. The threat of the pandemic and fear of corona were rated unexpectedly high with 68% and 50%, respectively. The hygiene measures during the rehabilitation stay eased subjective fears at the same time. The majority of patients were annoyed by wearing face masks but visors, protection shields and social distancing were more tolerated.

Conclusion

The implementation of the new hygiene modalities within the therapeutic rehabilitation setting was well-accepted by patients allowing access to auditory rehabilitation. A successful rehabilitation should ensure a fear-free environment by adhering to the necessary hygiene modalities.

SUBMITTER: Aschendorff A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7545804 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Quality of cochlear implant rehabilitation under COVID-19 conditions.

Aschendorff A A Arndt S S Kröger S S Wesarg T T Ketterer M C MC Kirchem P P Pixner S S Hassepaß F F Beck R R

HNO 20210101 Suppl 1

<h4>Background</h4>The rehabilitation process following cochlear implant (CI) surgery is carried out in a multimodal therapy according to German national guidelines and includes technical and medical aftercare. In times of the corona pandemic surgery and rehabilitation appointments were cancelled or delayed leading to a more difficult access to auditory rehabilitation. Newly implemented hygiene modalities due to the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic have changed medical aftercare and the rehabilitation proces ...[more]

PMID: 33034674

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:Functional outcomes following cochlear implantation have traditionally been focused on word and sentence recognition, which, although important, do not capture the varied communication and other experiences of adult cochlear implant (CI) users. Although the inadequacies of speech recognition to quantify CI user benefits are widely acknowledged, rarely have adult CI user outcomes been comprehensively assessed beyond these conventional measures. An important limitation in addressing this knowledge gap is that patient-reported outcome measures have not been developed and validated in adult CI patients using rigorous scientific methods. The purpose of the present study is to build on our previous work and create an item bank that can be used to develop new patient-reported outcome measures that assess CI quality of life (QOL) in the adult CI population. DESIGN:An online questionnaire was made available to 500 adult CI users who represented the adult CI population and were recruited through a consortium of 20 CI centers in the United States. The questionnaire included the 101 question CIQOL item pool and additional questions related to demographics, hearing and CI history, and speech recognition scores. In accordance with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System, responses were psychometrically analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory. RESULTS:Of the 500 questionnaires sent, 371 (74.2%) subjects completed the questionnaire. Subjects represented the full range of age, durations of CI use, speech recognition abilities, and listening modalities of the adult CI population; subjects were implanted with each of the three CI manufacturers' devices. The initial item pool consisted of the following domain constructs: communication, emotional, entertainment, environment, independence, listening effort, and social. Through psychometric analysis, after removing locally dependent and misfitting items, all of the domains were found to have sound psychometric properties, with the exception of the independence domain. This resulted in a final CIQOL item bank of 81 items in 6 domains with good psychometric properties. CONCLUSIONS:Our findings reveal that hypothesis-driven quantitative analyses result in a psychometrically sound CIQOL item bank, organized into unique domains comprised of independent items which measure the full ability range of the adult CI population. The final item bank will now be used to develop new instruments that evaluate and differentiate adult CIQOL across the patient ability spectrum.

Project description:Background and objectives: More and more children with severe-to-profound hearing loss are receiving cochlear implants (CIs) at an early age to improve their hearing and listening abilities, speech recognition, speech intelligibility, and other aspects of spoken language development. Despite this, the rehabilitation outcomes can be very heterogeneous in this population, not only because of issues related to surgery and fitting or the specific characteristics of the child with his/her additional disabilities but also because of huge differences in the quality of the support and rehabilitation offered by the therapist and the family. These quality standards for the rehabilitation of young deaf children receiving CIs are developed within the European KA202 Erasmus+ project "VOICE"-vocational education and training for speech and language therapists and parents for the rehabilitation of children with CIs, Ref. No.: 2020-1-RO01-KA202-080059. Material and methods: To develop these quality standards, we used the input from the face-to-face interviews of 11 local rehabilitation experts in CIs from the four partner countries of the project and the outcomes of the bibliographic analysis of 848 publications retrieved from six databases: Pub Med, Psych Info, CINAHL, Scopus, Eric, and Cochrane. Based on all this information, we created a first set of 32 quality standards over four domains: general, fitting, rehabilitation, and for professionals. Further on, the Delphi method was used by 18 international rehabilitation experts to discuss and agree on these standards. Results: The results from the literature analysis and the interviews show us that more than 90% of the consulted international experts agreed on 29 quality standards. They focus on different aspects of rehabilitation: the multidisciplinary team, their expertise and knowledge, important rehabilitation topics to focus on, and programming issues related to rehabilitation. Conclusions: These quality standards aim to optimize the activity of speech rehabilitation specialists so that they reach the optimal level of expertise. Also presented is the necessary equipment for the IC team to carry out the rehabilitation sessions in good conditions. This set of quality standards can be useful to ensure the appropriate postoperative care of these children. As a result, the rehabilitation process will be more relaxed, and therapists will have the opportunity to focus more on the specific needs of each child, with the provision of quality services, which will result in better results. This theme is particularly complex and dependent on multifactorial aspects of medicine, education, speech therapy, social work, and psychology that are very intricate and interdependent.

Dataset Information

Quality of cochlear implant rehabilitation under COVID-19 conditions.

Background

Material and methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Quality of cochlear implant rehabilitation under COVID-19 conditions.

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