Perceived Listening Difficulties of Adult Cochlear-Implant Users Under Measures Introduced to Combat the Spread of COVID-19.
Francisca Perea Pérez, Douglas E H Hartley, Pádraig T Kitterick and 1 others
PMID 35440245WHAT IT FOUND
Adult cochlear implant users reported significantly worse listening during the pandemic, especially with face masks.
They experienced high effort, fatigue, and anxiety, leading many to avoid communication. Visual cues like lipreading and captions were rated as the most helpful solutions.
Key findings
01Face masks caused significantly worse listening outcomes (effort, intelligibility, repetition, disengagement, anxiety, fatigue) than social distancing alone.
02Telephone calls were more challenging and more frequently avoided than video calls, particularly regarding effort, repetition, disengagement, and anxiety.
03Participants rated transparent face masks and reduced background noise as the most effective solutions for in-person communication.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was unbalanced, with most participants being female, retired, and aged 70-79, which may not represent the wider cochlear implant user population. Recruitment was via online channels and hearing charities, introducing potential selection bias. The study relied on retrospective self-report without pre-pandemic baseline data, making it subject to recall bias. There was no control group (e.g., normal hearing or mild hearing loss), so it is unclear if these difficulties are specific to cochlear implant users or common to all people with hearing loss. Masks and social distancing were assessed separately, though in reality they were often used together, which participants noted made communication impossible.
Declared interests
Funded by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) through a PhD studentship and supported by the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre. Authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these findings apply to all people with hearing loss or all cochlear implant users. The sample was predominantly older, female, and retired, and lacked a control group, so the severity of these listening difficulties may not be representative of younger, working, or male implant users.