Conclusion: Telephone use among implanted children is significantly different from that of the normally hearing population of the same age.
Objective: To characterize the use of telephone in cochlear implanted children and compare it to that of age-matched normal-hearing children.
Methods: The study (n = 26) and control (n = 27) groups each consisted of children aged 5-17 years treated at a tertiary referral center. The study group included children who received a Med-El multichannel cochlear implant and had used it for at least 18 months. The control group comprised generally healthy children with normal hearing and no history of chronic ear disease or otologic surgery. The main outcome measures, evaluated through a questionnaire sent by mail, were comparison of telephone use and speech comprehension over the telephone between the study and control groups.
Results: The median age of the study and control groups was 9 and 7 years, respectively (p = 0.12). There was a significant difference between the two groups in the reported rate of telephone use (mean 128 and 244 min/week, respectively, p = 0.006) and speech comprehension of familiar persons and strangers, which was highly significant among teenagers. The reported sound quality was similar for the two groups.