Systematic Review of Auditory Perceptual and Acoustic Characteristics of the Voice of Cochlear Implant Adult Users.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: What are the normative data available on the perceptual and acoustic characteristics of the voice of adults of both sexes who have hearing-impairment and who use cochlear implants?

PURPOSE: To identify in the literature, normative data about the perceptual auditory and acoustic characteristics of the voice of hearing-impaired cochlear implant adult users.

SEARCH STRATEGY: A systematic search was carried out in the Virtual Health Library, Web of Science, Science Direct, SciELO, and SCOPUS databases with no temporal restriction.

SELECTION CRITERIA: The articles were selected if they led with citation to normative data of the acoustic analysis of the voice of deaf cochlear implant users. And duplicate articles, case studies, letters to the editor, reviews, and studies that were not directly related to the topic were excluded.

DATA EXTRACTION: The data from each article were extracted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis checklist: title, abstract, year of publication, journal, authors and country of origin, identification of background, purpose, study design, participants, variables, and data measurement.

DATA SYNTHESIS: There were 1,052 publications that met the search criteria. After applying the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis checklist, excluding duplicates, and reading of the full text, 10 papers were selected for further analysis. Although several voice parameters have been studied, there is a great variation in study designs, sample sizes, age of participants, voice samples analyzed, and cochlear implant specifications.

CONCLUSION

The normative data available in the literature concerning the voice of cochlear implant users are consistent only in terms of fundamental frequency.