title: Integration of cochlear-implanted children into the general Israeli community.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Severe hearing impairment can have devastating effects on social integration and vocational opportunities.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate how well--or poorly--individuals who underwent cochlear implantation as children integrated into the general Israeli hearing community.
  
  
  METHODS
  We sent a questionnaire to the 30 subjects > or = 18 years old who underwent cochlear implants in our department from 1990 to 2004 when they were < 18 years of age and had used their device for at least 3 years before replying.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen implant users responded (14 males), yielding a 60% response rate. Their mean age was 13.3 +/- 7.0 years (range 6-17) at implantation and 21.1 +/- 3.6 years (range 18-34) when they filled in the questionnaire. Five were attending rabbinical school (yeshiva students), four were in regular military service, five were university students (three also held jobs), two were attending high school, one was employed (and had a university degree), and one had left the yeshiva and was unemployed when he returned the questionnaire. Fourteen respondents use the oral communication mode for conversation and the other 4 use both oral and sign languages. Longer daily implant use was significantly associated with coping with the difficulties in the setting in which they were currently active, with a higher level of satisfaction with their current lifestyle and with recognition of the implant's contribution to this satisfaction (P = 0.037, P = 0.019 and P = 0.001, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Advances in cochlear implant technologies enable profoundly deaf implanted children to integrate well into the Israeli hearing society, albeit with a large intersubject variability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel. sabim@bezeqint.net
authors.forename: Lela
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Migirov
authors.forename: Gilad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borisovsky
authors.forename: Eldar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carmel
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.forename: Jona
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kronenberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D019929:Cochlear Implantation; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003142:Communication; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires