Abstract
Objective: External assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) in children and adolescents with permanent hearing loss.
Method: 292 parents of hearing-impaired children received a standardized, age-adapted HRQL questionnaire (KINDL-R; on average 5.5 years after the provision with hearing aids). 68.8% of the questionnaires were sent back.
Study group: 178 children (91 boys, 87 girls), age 4.0 to 16.11 years; 23 children with multiple handicaps, age 4.0 to 16.0 years. The children were patients of the Goettinger Hoer-Sprachregister.
Results: The overall HRQL in children with hearing loss only was not adversely affected by the sensory disorder (Total HRQL 77.2; SD = 9.5 on a scale from 0 to 100). Boys (76.5; SD = 9.9) and girls (77.9; SD = 9.2) did not show a significant difference. The mean Total HRQL-score of the multiple handicapped children was reduced (68.0; SD = 15.3; p = 0.01) compared to those without other impairments. Age and contentment with school/kindergarten of the children with hearing loss were negatively correlated (r = −0.27; p < 0.001). The parents of the children with multiple handicaps rated the LQ of the scales “somatic well being” (p = 0.003) and “friends” (p = 0.001) lower.
Conclusions: Children with hearing impairment did not exhibit a general reduction of HRQL. HRQL of hearing-impaired children with comorbid disabilities is clearly diminished. Nevertheless the disorder seems to make social interactions more difficult and thus impede the psychosocial development of a child. Interactions between changed attitudes of parents and their effects on the child are to assume.
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