Patterns of Cochlear Implant Use and Speech Exposure in Children With Single-Sided Deafness Compared to Bimodal Devices in the Post-Pandemic Period.
Harrison Gao, Hanne Bartels, Emily Wener and 4 others
PMID 41128530WHAT IT FOUND
Children with single-sided deafness used their cochlear implants less than peers with bimodal devices, especially as school-aged children.
Hearing aid use correlated with implant use. Speech exposure dropped during the pandemic but recovered post-pandemic. Consistent monitoring is needed to prevent declining device use.
Key findings
01Children with single-sided deafness used their cochlear implants for significantly fewer hours per day than children using bimodal devices (hearing aid plus implant).
02Daily cochlear implant use declined over time in school-aged children with single-sided deafness, whereas it increased or remained stable in younger children and bimodal users.
03There was a positive association between daily hearing aid use and daily cochlear implant use in children with bimodal devices.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study relied on device datalogs, which cannot distinguish between the device being on and the child actively listening. A significant number of children with single-sided deafness were lost to follow-up, which may bias results if these children had different usage patterns. The groups differed in hearing history and age at implantation, which may confound comparisons of device use. The study did not measure speech perception outcomes, so it cannot link usage patterns directly to clinical benefit.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that recovered speech exposure proportions mean children returned to pre-pandemic listening hours. Absolute speech exposure in school-aged children with single-sided deafness remained lower than pre-pandemic levels despite the proportional recovery.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →