Working Life Satisfaction of Patients with Cochlear Implant. Multicentric Study

Background: There is not objective measurement methods for Working life satisfaction of patients with cochlear implant (CI).

Objective: The aim is to analyse the CI impact in adults with moderate-severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss working life.

Material & Methods: A questionnaire was designed and validated in 2015 for measuring working life impact in CI users. A multi-center, retrospective study is carried out. Inclusion criteria are: CI user >18 years old when completing the questionnaire; severe-deep bilateral hearing loss; willingness to participate in the study. 1 year of IC use, and 6 months of active working life.

Results: A total of 119 CI users were included in the retrospective study versus 17 in the prospective study. Some of the aspects studied are: gender, level of studies, work activity, hearing disability, noisy environment, working satisfaction and motivation, phone abilities, work progress, personal relationships, working discrimination etc. 91.8% of the subjects were working actively. 58.8% of the subjects works in noisy enviroments. An improvement in work satisfaction is observed in the retrospective group, in the 88.3% of the subjects. 79-88% of patients did not find specific supports for his hearing loss in the workplace.

Conclusion: This fact, in addition to high noise in the workplace, shows that working conditions were difficult in terms of listening. This is essential in the recognition of the spoken word, specially when we are talking about people with a hearing disability.