Preoperative spoken language communication behavior of senior CI patients

Introduction With the loss of hearing ability and the resulting difficulties in understanding, the spoken language communication possibilities of hearing-impaired people can be reduced. Therefore, the aim here is to investigate whether and in which areas the spoken language communication of older CI patients is reduced before CI fitting.

Methods The patient group currently includes 21 retired CI patients with profound hearing loss aged 60 years and older with normal cognitive screening results in the clock test. A self-designed questionnaire was used to retrospectively assess quantitative face-to-face and telephone spoken communication behavior with family and friends for the past year prior to CI fitting. Results All CI patients from multi-person households have daily direct conversations with family and friends preoperatively, in contrast to half of the hearing impaired from single households. 38% of those living alone communicate daily with friends and 25% communicate daily with family. Of the hearing impaired with a partner, only 23% communicate by spoken language outside the family. Daily telephone calls to family members are made by 14% of seniors.

Conclusion  Among hearing-impaired seniors, the daily direct communication frequency of 80% with family and friends is similar to that of hearing seniors with approx. 70% (Haesner 2013), since here lip-reading, facial expressions and gestures are supportive. However, hearing-impaired seniors prefer to communicate with family and have less communication with friends. While 50% of hearing seniors use the telephone daily (Haesner 2013), the proportion of hearing-impaired seniors is clearly reduced at 14%.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023