The Effects of Cochlear Implant on Parental Mental Health

A child who is to have cochlear implant surgery, is in need of its parents care. It is very important for the parents to be in a safe and unstressed psychological state, in order to provide an adequate level of care and attention to the child. The aim of this paper is the evaluation of parents’ psychological stress and behavior indicators during the course of this treatment. A sample of 29 families with children referred for cochlear implant surgery were selected during the years 2011-2012 in Baghiyatallah hospital in Iran. The General Health Questionnaire(GHQ) has been used as the main analysis tool which the target population responded to both before and six months after surgery. Descriptive statistics and paired T-tests in have been used. This study shows parental mental health increases with cochlear implant surgery. The results also indicate that after this operation, maternal anxiety and somatic symptoms in mothers are reduced more than in fathers. Sleep perturbation, social functioning perturbation and depression have a higher reduction rate in fathers than in mothers. The findings show that cochlear implant has an effective impact in increasing parental mental health.