Quality of Life-CI: Development of an Early Childhood Parent-Proxy and Adolescent Version.
Ivette Cejas, Jennifer Coto, Christina Sarangoulis and 2 others
PMID 33974778WHAT IT FOUND
New questionnaires capture quality of life for children with cochlear implants from birth to age 22.
They cover issues like device management, social functioning, and noisy environments that standard hearing tests miss. These tools are not yet validated for clinical use.
Key findings
01The early childhood version uses a parent-proxy format, while the adolescent version is self-reported by the patient.
02Key domains identified for early childhood include communication, device management, and social functioning, alongside age-specific themes like behavior and early intervention.
03The adolescent version covers domains such as advocacy, independence, and emotional functioning, which were not present in the early childhood instrument.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not validate the psychometric properties (reliability and validity) of the new questionnaires; it only developed them. The sample was drawn from two specialized centers and did not represent the general US population, with high percentages of Hispanic participants and low percentages of Black participants. Most participants used spoken language; only 11% of the adolescent group used sign language, limiting generalizability to that population. The instruments are not yet ready for routine clinical use as they lack normative data.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Institute of Health (N.I.H., Extramural). No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use these questionnaires to make clinical decisions or diagnose issues yet. The paper describes the development and initial testing of the tools, but they have not undergone the necessary psychometric validation to ensure the scores are reliable or valid.