Factors Associated with Preoperative Patient Expectations in the Cochlear Implant Evaluation Process.

Objective: To determine what factors are associated with patients' preoperative expectations of their postimplantation experience with their cochlear implant devices.

Study design: A retrospective review of data from a prospectively maintained cochlear implant database was conducted.

Setting: Tertiary, academic hospital.

Patients: Adult patients who underwent a cochlear implant candidacy evaluation and completed the CIQOL-Expectations validated instrument were included.

Results: Age was found to have a weak association with increased expectations in some domains of the CIQOL-Expectations. There were some very weak associations identified between a patient's baseline functional ability and their expectations in the corresponding domain. However, no modifiable variable included in the current analysis was found to have an association with patient expectations.

Conclusion: Understanding patient expectations is a critical part of the success of medical interventions such as cochlear implantation. However, they are complex and likely multifactorial, and future studies are needed to look at other potential variables that may contribute to their formation.