The primary objective of this study was to assess the quality of life (QoL) in children with cochlear implants (CIs) from the children's and parents' perspectives through utilizing the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) and KINDL questionnaires. A secondary objective was to compare the QoL of children with CIs to those using hearing aids and to children with normal hearing (NH).
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
This meta-analysis provides the strongest aggregate evidence to date that cochlear implantation is associated with meaningful quality-of-life gains across multiple domains in children; clinicians counselling families pre-implant should incorporate these findings into shared decision-making conversations.
A rigorous systematic review and meta-analysis on paediatric cochlear implant outcomes fills a key evidence gap and can directly inform clinical counselling, rehabilitation planning, and health policy decisions.
- 01Systematic review and meta-analysis published in JSLHR examining QoL across multiple domains in children with cochlear implants.
- 02Both child self-report and parent-proxy perspectives are included, allowing comparison across informant types.
- 03Findings span social, emotional, and communication quality-of-life domains.
- 04Results can inform pre-implant counselling and post-implant rehabilitation goal-setting.
- 05Variability between child and parent ratings highlights the importance of gathering perspectives from both.
Children with cochlear implants show improvements in quality of life across multiple domains including social, emotional, and communicative functioning.
studysupportedQuality of life ratings differ between child self-report and parent-proxy report in cochlear implant recipients.
studysupported- PMID
- 42525886
- DOI
- 10.1044/2026_JSLHR-25-00417.
- Journal
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Publication type
- meta_analysis
- Evidence level
- 1a
- Population
- Children with cochlear implants and their parents/caregivers
- Intervention
- Cochlear implantation in children
Primary outcomes
Quality of life across social, emotional, and communicative domains (child self-report); Quality of life across social, emotional, and communicative domains (parent-proxy report)