Listening-Related Fatigue in Children With Unilateral Hearing Loss

Abstract

Purpose Listening-related fatigue is an understudied construct that may contribute to the auditory, educational, and psychosocial problems experienced by children with unilateral hearing loss (UHL). Herein, we present an overview of listening-related fatigue in school-age children with hearing loss (CHL), with a focus on children with UHL. Method Following a review of research examining listening-related fatigue in adults and CHL, we present preliminary findings exploring the effects of unilateral and bilateral hearing loss on listening-related fatigue in children. For these exploratory analyses, we used data collected from our ongoing work developing and validating a tool, the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale, for measuring listening-related fatigue in children. Presently, we are assessing 3 versions of the fatigue scale-child self-report, parent proxy, and teacher proxy. Using these scales, data have been collected from more than 900 participants. Data from children with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss and for children with no hearing loss are compared with adult Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale data. Results Results of our literature review and exploratory analyses suggest that adults and CHL are at increased risk for listening-related fatigue. Importantly, this increased risk was similar in magnitude regardless of whether the loss was unilateral or bilateral. Subjective ratings, based on child self-report and parent proxy report, were consistent, suggesting that children with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss experienced greater listening-related fatigue than children with no hearing loss. In contrast, results based on teacher proxy report were not sensitive to the effects of hearing loss. Conclusions Children with UHL are at increased risk for listening-related fatigue, and the magnitude of fatigue is similar to that experienced by children with bilateral hearing loss. Problems of listening-related fatigue in school-age CHL may be better identified by CHL themselves and their parents than by teachers and specialists working with the children.

Figures

Figure 1.

Mean item response theory (IRT) scale scores of respondents with self-reported unilateral, bilateral, and no hearing loss (HL) obtained using three versions of the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale (VFS) for assessing listening-related fatigue in children (VFS-C, VFS-P, VFS-T). The mean scale scores for adults were obtained using the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale for Adults (Hornsby et al., 2018) and are provided for comparison. Solid lines over the bars reflect significant differences between groups.

Figure 2.

Percentage of children with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss (HL) exhibiting moderate-to-severe fatigue (item response theory scores > 0.5) as compared to a group of children without HL. Solid lines over the bars reflect significant differences between groups.