Table 2.

Quality of life assessments: pediatric patients with hearing loss as compared to normal hearing peers

Year	Authors	Age (years)	NH (n)	HL (n)	QOL tools	Conclusions
2010	Borton, et al.57	6–17	25	61	PedsQL	No statistical difference in quality of life between children with normal vs impaired hearing (total, psychosocial, physical)
2013	Elbasan, et al.25	5–7	28	27	CHQ, PEDI	Children with HL as compared to normal hearing were found to have lower scores in the following domains: global general health, emotional, physical, behavior, mental health, general health, family activity and cohesion and parental time (CHQ-PF50) and self-care, mobility and social function (PEDI). (p<0.05 for all listed comparisons above.)
2008	Fellinger, et al.26	6–16	0	99	Inventory of Life Quality	As compared to a normative sample of normal hearing children, deaf pupils reported worse quality of life. (p<0.05 for the following comparisons: emotional problems, conduct problems, peer problems, social behavior and hyperactivity.)
2005	Huber, et al.27	8–16	1501	29	KINDLR	As compared to normalized scores, children with CI had lower quality of life (ES: −1.6, p<0.001 for females with CI: age 8–12, self and ES: −1.1, p<0.025 for males with CI: age 8–12, self).
2010	Lovett, et al.28	1–16	56	50	HUI3	There were no significant differences between the 3 groups, normal hearing, unilateral CI and bilateral CI in health utility or QOL.
2010	Loy, et al.29	11–16	1501	88	KINDLR	The two participant groups, those with Cis for hearing loss and their normal hearing peers, did not differ in their reported overall quality of life.
2007	Petrou, et al.30	7–9	63	120	HUI3	As compared to their normal hearing peers, children with bilateral permanent hearing loss were found to have significantly lower scores in the following domains of HUI3: vision, hearing, speech, ambulation, dexterity and cognition (p<0.05 for all comparisons listed).
2012	Schick, et al.31	11–18	0	221	YQOL-R, YQOL-DHH	When compared to scores for their normal hearing peers, participants who were deaf or hard of hearing scored lower in “self” (p=0.036) and “relationship” domains (p=0.003).
2011	Umansky, et al.22	7–12	35	80	PedsQL, HEAR-QL	Children with hearing loss reported significantly lower scores than their normal hearing peers on the HEAR-QL (71[18] vs 98[5]; p<0.001). PedsQL scores were not statistically different between hearing loss and normal hearing patients.
2004	Wake, et al.32	7–8	895	83	CHQ	This study compared children with hearing loss fitted for hearing aids or CI compared to their normal hearing peers. Parent reported psychosocial well-being was lower in children with hearing loss (p = 0.001).
2004	Wake, et al.33	7–8	865	86	CHQ	Compared to a normative sample, children with hearing loss had statistically significantly lower scores in quality of life measures related to psychosocial skills than their normal hearing peers (ES: 0.5, p<0.001). There were no differences in the physical domain.
2006	Wake, et al.34	not given	6516	55	PedsQL	Compared to a normative sample of normal hearing peers, there were no significant differences in quality of life in hearing impaired children.
2009	Warner-czyz, et al35	4–7	25	50	KINDLR	This study compared patients with hearing impairment and CI and those with normal hearing. There were no differences found in quality of life between these two groups.
2014	Rachakonda et al.23	13–18	54	172	PedsQL, HEAR-QL	As compared to normal hearing peers, children with hearing loss reported significantly poorer hearing related QOL on the HEAR-QL in all categories (p<0.001) as well as lower scores on the school domain of the PedsQL (79[17] vs 70[20] p=0.001).
2011	Hintermair, et al.36	6–18	0	212	Inventory of Life Quality	Compared to a normative sample, those with hearing loss reported worse quality of life in school (p<0.001) and social domains (p<0.001) than their normal hearing peers.
2012	Clark, et al.37	0–5	97	188	VAS-HRQoL	Baseline deficits of CI candidates as compared to normal hearing peers were found in development domains, cognition (ES: 1.4, p=0.01) and speech recognition (ES: 1.4, p=0.02). Children implanted at a younger age had greater improvement in development.
2010	Rajendran, et al.56	6–11	100	100	PedsQL	Compared to age-matched controls, children with hearing loss had lower scores in the physical and social domains. Specific domain scores and effect size were not available from this paper and it was not included in the meta-analysis.