TY - JOUR

T1 - Auditory verbal skills training is a new approach in adult cochlear implant rehabilitation

AU - Baungaard, Line Husted

AU - Sandvej, Matilde Grønborg

AU - Krøijer, Juliane Sofie

AU - Hestbæk, Marianne Kyhne

AU - Samar, Cecilia Fernandez

AU - Percy-Smith, Lone

AU - Cayé-Thomasen, Per

N1 - Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - INTRODUCTION: Outcome after cochlear implantation in adults varies and is affected by many factors. One factor is auditory training after implantation. No national guidelines for adult auditory training currently exist in Denmark. An auditory verbal skills training (AVST) rehabilitation programme was developed and applied at the East Danish Cochlear Implant (CI) Centre (Rigshospitalet, Gentofte Unit). The AVST intervention was inspired by the auditory verbal therapy practice and targeted the paediatric population and their families. The objectives were to document the outcome for first-time adult CI users, to apply and explore the effects of the AVST and to examine CI users' possibly extended need for technical follow-up.METHODS: A prospective comparative study design was used. Ten CI users participated in AVST with a relative. Seven CI users were included in a control group. The outcome measures of speech understanding and quality of life (QoL) were recorded pre-implant and post-implant.RESULTS: All participants showed improved speech understanding and a higher QoL post-implant. The within-group analyses showed significant improvements in outcome over time. However, no differences were seen in the between-group analyses post-implant. The CI users in the intervention group received more CI fine-tuning.CONCLUSIONS: The AVST was successfully implemented at the CI Centre. Improvements in speech understanding and QoL were seen in both groups over time, but no differences were seen between the groups. The CI users in the intervention group received more fine-tuning of their processor.FUNDING: Oticon Medical A/S supported the study financially.TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not relevant as the study applied a prospective method study design.

AB - INTRODUCTION: Outcome after cochlear implantation in adults varies and is affected by many factors. One factor is auditory training after implantation. No national guidelines for adult auditory training currently exist in Denmark. An auditory verbal skills training (AVST) rehabilitation programme was developed and applied at the East Danish Cochlear Implant (CI) Centre (Rigshospitalet, Gentofte Unit). The AVST intervention was inspired by the auditory verbal therapy practice and targeted the paediatric population and their families. The objectives were to document the outcome for first-time adult CI users, to apply and explore the effects of the AVST and to examine CI users' possibly extended need for technical follow-up.METHODS: A prospective comparative study design was used. Ten CI users participated in AVST with a relative. Seven CI users were included in a control group. The outcome measures of speech understanding and quality of life (QoL) were recorded pre-implant and post-implant.RESULTS: All participants showed improved speech understanding and a higher QoL post-implant. The within-group analyses showed significant improvements in outcome over time. However, no differences were seen in the between-group analyses post-implant. The CI users in the intervention group received more CI fine-tuning.CONCLUSIONS: The AVST was successfully implemented at the CI Centre. Improvements in speech understanding and QoL were seen in both groups over time, but no differences were seen between the groups. The CI users in the intervention group received more fine-tuning of their processor.FUNDING: Oticon Medical A/S supported the study financially.TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not relevant as the study applied a prospective method study design.

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - Aged, 80 and over

KW - Cochlear Implantation/rehabilitation

KW - Cochlear Implants

KW - Denmark

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Prospective Studies

KW - Quality of Life

KW - Speech/physiology

KW - Speech Perception

KW - Speech Therapy/methods

KW - Treatment Outcome

KW - Vocabulary

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 30864546

VL - 66

JO - Danish Medical Journal

JF - Danish Medical Journal

SN - 2245-1919

IS - 3

M1 - A5535

ER -