Introduction: Listening effort is the mental exertion and cognitive resources needed for the recognition of speech. The patients with hearing loss have more listening effort than the normal hearing subjects, and this may increase stress and fatigue in the affected patients.
Objectives: To assess the listening effort in patients with unilateral cochlear implants (CI) and to compare it with the listening effort of the normal hearing subjects.
Patients and Methods: Our study included 27 subjects aged 18 to 45 years. They were divided into a control group (I) and a study group (II). The control group (I) consisted of 15 adults with bilateral normal peripheral hearing while the study group (II) consisted of 12 post-lingual adults wearing unilateral cochlear implants (CI). We assessed the listening effort in unilateral CI patients using subjective measures [Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale (HADS)] and behavioral measures including both dual-task paradigm and memory tests.
Results: Unilateral CI patients showed higher SNR loss and prolonged reaction times than the control group in the dual-task paradigm. They also showed higher scores in HADS and poorer performance in the memory tests.
Conclusion: Unilateral CI patients showed more listening effort than the normal hearing subjects with a higher level of anxiety and depression. They also showed poorer performance in the memory tests, which indicates that the hearing loss may lead to memory affection.