Vocal health of parents of children with hearing assistive devices

Uzma Qayyum; Nazia Mumtaz; Ghulam Saqulain

doi:10.12669/pjms.39.5.7570

Vocal health of parents of children with hearing assistive devices

Pak J Med Sci. 2023 Sep-Oct;39(5):1434-1439. doi: 10.12669/pjms.39.5.7570.

Authors

Uzma Qayyum¹, Nazia Mumtaz², Ghulam Saqulain³

Affiliations

¹ Uzma Qayyum, MS (SLP) Speech Language Pathologist, Department of Speech Language Pathology, Riphah International University, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Nazia Mumtaz, FCPS (Rehab Sciences) Head of Department, Department of Speech Language Pathology, Faculty of Rehab and Allied Health Sciences, Riphah International University, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ Ghulam Saqulain, FCPS (Otorhinolaryngology) Head of Department & Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Capital Hospital PGMI, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Abstract

Background & objectives: VH (Vocal health) is the need of the hour. VH of parents of children with hearing assistive devices (HAD) reveals a literature gap, during the habilitation process of their children. To explore the vocal health of parents of children with hearing assistive devices.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at Riphah International University from September to December 2021. Study recruited N=384 parents of Hearing Impaired children (HIC) using HAD for at least two years, of both genders and aged 2-9 years using convenience sampling. Voice-related quality of life (V-RQOL), and vocal health Index (VHI) -10 were used for data collection. Data was analyzed on SPSS Version 25. Descriptive statistics, Anova and t-test were utilized to see difference between means of groups. P<0.05 shows significant-results.

Results: Parents of children using hearing assistive devices had excellent V-RQOL score in 350(91.14%) parents. There was no significant difference in V=RQOL as regards type of hearing assistive device use (p=0.102), laterality of device use (p=0.918) and degree of hearing loss (p=0.143). However, type of hearing loss revealed significant difference (p=0.021). Also VHI score revealed significantly (p=0.008) lower means in parents of children with cochlear implants.

Conclusion: Current study concludes that the parents raising hearing impaired children with hearing assistive devices, possess good vocal health as determined by VHI and V-RQOL scores with only a very small number of parents reporting vocal symptoms.

Keywords: Hearing assistive devices; Hearing impaired Children; Hearing loss; Vocal health; Voice handicap index; Voice related quality of life.