Development and application of a health-related quality-of-life instrument for adults with cochlear implants: the Nijmegen cochlear implant questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE

The goal was to develop a quantifiable, self-assessment health-related quality of life (QoL) instrument for use in cochlear implant (CI) users.

DESIGN

Three principal domains were distinguished: physical, psychological, and social. Forty-five postlingually deaf adult multichannel CI users and 46 deaf candidates on the waiting list for CIs (control group) participated in the study.

RESULTS

Retrospective scores for the CI group corresponded very well with the scores for the control group. Current QoL scores were substantially higher for all 6 subdomains. Internal consistency and testretest reliability coefficients proved to be satisfactory, and the ability to detect clinical changes with the Nijmegen Cochlear Implantation Questionnaire (NCIQ) proved to be good.

CONCLUSIONS

The psychometric characteristics of the NCIQ proved to be reliable and probably valid and sensitive to clinical changes. The data obtained with the NCIQ reflected that the instrument was able to detect that a CI had significant effects on several health-related QoL aspects, including the social and psychological domains.