Objectives: In the present study we sought to evaluate the psychosocial and quality of life (QOL) impacts of cochlear implant (CI) treatment on both CI recipients and their partners in a Canadian population.
Methods: A qualitative cross-sectional contemporary cohort evaluation was conducted by distributing specifically designed questionnaires to both CI recipients and their partners at their follow-up appointments over a month at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Results: It was found that both CI recipients and their partners demonstrated substantial benefit and improvement in multiple psychosocial domains.
Discussion: Musical listening was found to show variable improvements between recipients. Further analysis found a simple correlation where the group of recipients who all had a hearing disability for a longer duration had demonstrated a higher proportion of improvement in musical listening. CI recipients endorsed having improved QOL which was in agreement with proxy observation by partners.
Conclusion: Overall, CI use has been shown to have significant benefit to psychosocial well-being of CI recipients. This benefit is also conferred to their caregivers/partners; which in our society concerned about caregiver burden is quite important to recognize.
Keywords: Caregiver burden; Cochlear implant; Music; Partners; Quality of life.