An Investigation of Telephone Use Among Cochlear Implant Recipients

The purpose of this study was to examine telephone use among cochlear implant recipients. A questionnaire was constructed and mailed to 803 adults who received a Clarion cochlear implant system manufactured by Advanced Bionics Corporation. Question-naire recipients were implanted at least 12 months prior to receiving the questionnaire (i.e., they were implanted in 1998 or 1999). Approximately 60% (n = 478) responded, of whom 70% (n = 336) were considered "telephone users" (i.e., they answered the telephone and/or initiated calls). Telephone users were significantly younger and had significantly more daily hours of cochlear implant use than nonusers. Not surprisingly, there were differences between groups with respect to method of communication (i.e., more users employed oral communication, while more nonusers employed both oral and manual communication) and ability to understand words without lipreading (i.e., more users were able to understand). Thirty-seven percent of the telephone users were male, and ...