Outcomes and quality of life in conductive hearing loss

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to measure quality of life (QOL) and hearing-specific functional status before and after treatment of conductive hearing loss (CHL). STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: A prospective, longitudinal, outcomes-based study was performed at an academic medical center. RESULTS: Mean baseline QOL scores in CHL patients were comparable with those of the general population. Audiometric studies indicated significant improvements in hearing threshold in all treated patients. There was no significant improvement in mean global QOL scores after treatment of CHL, although there was little room for improvement over baseline. The hearing-specific instrument did demonstrate significant improvements in emotional and social/situational hearing status after treatment. Patients treated with hearing aids had poorer baseline QOL and hearing status than patients treated with surgery and tended to show declines in QOL and only partial improvement in hearing-specific functional status after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of CHL resulted in improvements in hearing-specific functional status, although changes were difficult to detect with a global QOL instrument.