Sameer Pootheri1
BACKGROUND
State Initiative on Disabilities [SID] survey (2015) states that 2.32 % of Kerala
population are affected with one or the other form of disabilities; the
Sruthitharangam scheme of Kerala Government since 2012 provides free cochlear
implant surgery and rehabilitation to children with bilateral profound sensorineural
hearing loss among children of 0 - 5 years age group. We wanted to measure the
expectations of the parents and their perspectives before cochlear implant surgery
which depends upon their understanding of the whole process of surgery and the
rehabilitation after surgery and its final outcomes.
METHODS
67 parents of pre-implant children were interviewed with an open-ended
questionnaire to know their perspective of government aided pre-implant
programme in the state of Kerala. Children were using Hearing aids of Behind the
Ear (BTE) TBE 110 HT model supplied by the government, free of cost. Children
were attending pre-implant Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) with hearing aids at
Centre for Audiology and Speech Pathology [CASP] Govt. Medical College,
Kozhikode, for a minimum of 3 months. All the data was analysed using mean and
percentage calculations.
RESULTS
67 pre-implant children used their hearing aids for a minimum of 3 - month period
and the age range was between 12 months to 36 months. The mean age of
children was 2.1 ± 0.43 years. 41 male and 26 female children, with a male to
female ratio of 1.53: 1 were included in the study. Analysis of the questionnaire
showed 8 benefits, 11 shortcomings, 5 expectations and 8 suggestions.
CONCLUSIONS
The parentally reported expectations, short comings, and outcomes of the use of
hearing aids could be related to many factors like health care services provided by
the government, and the after services of hearing aids involved. These findings
help us to understand the parental perspectives of the success of cochlear
implantation which can be useful during parental counselling sessions. Study is
also useful to the implant centres to revise their practices accordingly and improve
the information given to candidate families.
