To identify the most commonly used patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for assessing quality of life (QoL) in adults with cochlear implants (CIs) and to examine how well these PROMs reflect domains defined by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework.
Audiologists and cochlear implant programs should cross-reference their chosen patient-reported outcome tools against the ICF framework to ensure they capture all relevant functional domains; no single tool currently dominates.
Standardising patient-reported outcome measures for cochlear implant users is critical for cross-centre research comparisons and for demonstrating the full functional benefit of implantation.
- 01Systematic review mapped commonly used quality-of-life (QoL) PROMs for adult cochlear implant users.
- 02Tools were evaluated against the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework.
- 03No single PROM was found to comprehensively cover all relevant ICF domains.
- 04Findings can guide researchers and clinicians in selecting or developing better outcome measures.
- 05Published in the International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology (doi: 10.65717/iao.2026.252056).
Existing PROMs for adult cochlear implant users do not fully align with ICF framework domains.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42345418
- DOI
- 10.65717/iao.2026.252056.
- Journal
- International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology
- Publication type
- meta_analysis
- Evidence level
- 2a
- Population
- Adult cochlear implant users
- Intervention
- Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for quality of life assessment
- Comparator
- ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) framework
Primary outcomes
Identification of most commonly used QoL PROMs in adult CI users; Alignment of PROMs with ICF framework domains