Respect for a young male with and without a hearing aid: a reversal of the "hearing-aid effect" in medical and non-medical students?

OBJECTIVE: To investigate, in line with the "hearing-aid effect", whether medical students would have less respect for a young male with a hearing aid than without when he was described as either respectworthy (i.e. as deserving respect) or non-respectworthy, and whether their attitudes differed from non-medical students. The interaction between the presence/absence of a hearing aid and respectworthiness on respect level was also explored. DESIGN: Participants were shown a photograph and a written description of a young male. They were pseudo-randomly assigned to one of four core conditions reflecting the presence or absence of a hearing aid and the young man's respectworthiness, and completed questions regarding their behaviours, beliefs, and feelings of respect towards him. STUDY SAMPLE: One hundred and eighty-one medical students and a control group of 92 non-medical students. RESULTS: Results showed more respect for the young male with a hearing aid than without from female participants, and for the young male described as respectworthy compared to non-respectworthy in medical and in non-medical students. However, medical students had more respect for the young male with and without a hearing aid than non-medical students. CONCLUSIONS: Findings were contrary to the "hearing-aid effect". Possible explanations are given and implications are discussed.

Causal attributions in King-Kopetzky syndrome.

At least 10% of people who present for help with hearing difficulties will be found to have normal hearing thresholds. These cases are clinically categorized as King-Kopetzky syndrome (KKS), obscure auditory dysfunction (OAD), or auditory processing disorder (APD). While recent research has focussed on the possible mechanistic basis for these difficulties, the perceptions of the hearing difficulties that lead people to seek help have not hitherto been identified. This study presents findings from an observational survey of causal attributions of hearing difficulties from 100 people with KKS. The findings suggest that participants regard immunity and risk related causes of hearing difficulties as pre-dominant. Psychological factors were not considered to be causal for hearing difficulties. These factors were not affected by diagnostic classification. These findings inform audiologists about their patient beliefs for the first time. The authors suggest that clinicians take care to ensure that their counselling is responsive to these beliefs.

Caffeine abstinence: an ineffective and potentially distressing tinnitus therapy.

The effect of phased caffeine withdrawal and abstention on tinnitus severity was assessed using a pseudo-randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled crossover trial of 30 days duration. Sixty-six volunteers who experienced tinnitus and who usually consumed at least 150 mg/day of caffeine participated. The intervention was a direct replacement of usual caffeinated tea/coffee with double-blinded supplies, under one of two conditions. Condition 1: Maintenance followed by phased withdrawal. Condition 2: Phased withdrawal followed by reintroduction and maintenance. Tinnitus severity was measured by the total score of the Tinnitus Questionnaire on Days 1, 15, and 30. Secondary measures included twice daily self-rated symptoms relevant to tinnitus and caffeine withdrawal. Caffeine had no effect on tinnitus severity, the mean difference between caffeinated and decaffeinated days being -0.04 (95% confidence interval -1.99 to 1.93), p=0.97. Significant acute adverse symptoms of caffeine withdrawal were observed. No evidence was found to justify caffeine abstinence as a therapy to alleviate tinnitus, but acute effects of caffeine withdrawal might add to the burden of tinnitus.

Illness perceptions and hearing difficulties in King-Kopetzky syndrome: what determines help seeking?

The present study explored illness perceptions of hearing difficulties amongst one hundred participants who reported experiencing hearing difficulties despite normal audiometric thresholds. This experience is referred to as King-Kopetzky syndrome (KKS), obscure auditory dysfunction (OAD), or auditory processing disorder (APD). Logistic regression was used to consider the associations between help-seeking and a range of audiological and illness perception measures. Results indicate that help-seekers present with poorer speech in noise thresholds than non help-seekers, and that coherent illness perceptions and a negative belief in the consequences of hearing difficulties are associated with help-seeking status, regardless of hearing sensitivity.

How Can Respectfulness in Medical Professionals Be Increased? A Complex But Important Question.

Respectfulness is demanded of doctors and predicts more positive patient health-related outcomes, but research is scarce on ways to promote it. This study explores two ways to conceptualize unconditional respect from medical students, defined as respect paid to people on the basis of their humanity, in order to inform strategies to increase it. Unconditional respect conceptualized as an attitude suggests that unconditional respect and conditional respect are additive, whereas unconditional respect conceptualized as a personality trait suggests that people who are high on unconditional respect afford equal respect to all humans regardless of their merits. One hundred and eighty-one medical students completed an unconditional respect measure then read a description of a respect-worthy or a non-respect-worthy man and indicated their respect towards him. The study found a main effect for unconditional respect and a main effect for target respect-worthiness but no interaction between the two when respect paid to the target was assessed, supporting the attitude-based conceptualization. This suggests that unconditional respect can be increased through relevant interventions aimed at increasing the relative salience to doctors of the human worth of individuals. Interventions to increase unconditional respect are discussed.