Effects of families’ socioeconomic and education level on auditory skills of cochlear implant users: an Iranian population study

Hearing loss can have disabling effects on all aspects of children’s life and demographic factors of families can have significant effects on children’s auditory development. The main aim of the study was determining the effects of socioeconomic and education level on auditory behaviors of hearing-impaired children.

The study was cross sectional descriptive-analytic study and was conducted on 207 parents of children under age of four years with native Persian speaking parents with literacy skill. Their hearing impairment was identified before the first month of age. Early occurrence of hearing loss was considered to exclude any effects of early exposure to normal auditory stimuli on the outcome measurements. The children had at least 3-month experience with the cochlear implant (CI) after best fitting and adaptation to their device at the time of the study. Samples were selected by convenience sampling method from available subjects. For determining socioeconomic level, Ghodratnama socioeconomic status (SES) questionnaire was used. Infants and Toddlers Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) was selected for the auditory behaviors study.

Socioeconomic and educational level of the family showed no significant effects on auditory behaviors. The age of receiving auditory assistive device had weak but statistically significant effect on the outcome.

It seems that socioeconomic status and educational level of the family did not contribute to the auditory behaviors of children with cochlear implant. The generalizations of these results need further studies.