OBJECTIVES: This scoping review examines the literature on the role of communication partners in pre-cochlear implant (CI) decision-making, with a focus on psychosocial influences, candidate motivations, expectations, and gaps in the current evidence base.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists should proactively involve communication partners in cochlear implant counselling, as this review suggests they have significant psychosocial influence on candidacy decisions — though the evidence base is scoping-level only and does not establish what structured involvement looks like.
Understanding the role of communication partners in CI decision-making can help clinicians design more family-centred counselling approaches that improve uptake and informed consent quality.
- 01Scoping review maps existing literature on communication partners' influence in pre-cochlear implant decision-making.
- 02Communication partners (spouses, family, friends) affect candidate decisions through psychosocial and emotional channels.
- 03Highlights a gap: communication partner perspectives are under-represented in CI candidacy research.
- 04Published in Ear and Hearing, a leading audiology journal.
- 05Findings support a more family-centred model of cochlear implant counselling.
Communication partners exert psychosocial influence on pre-cochlear implant decision-making.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42223280
- DOI
- 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001847.
- Journal
- Ear and Hearing
- Publication type
- review
- Evidence level
- 2a
- Population
- Adults or children considering cochlear implantation and their communication partners
- Intervention
- Communication partner involvement in pre-CI decision-making
Primary outcomes
Psychosocial influence of communication partners on cochlear implant decision-making