eHealth parent education for hearing aid management: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Parents frequently experience challenges implementing daily routines important for consistent hearing aid management. Education that supports parents in learning new information and gaining confidence is essential for intervention success. We conducted a pilot study to test an eHealth program to determine if we could implement the program with adherence and affect important behavioural outcomes compared to treatment as usual. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. STUDY SAMPLE: Parents of children birth to 42 months who use hearing aids. Eighty-two parents were randomly assigned to the intervention or treatment-as-usual group. Four parents assigned to the intervention group did not continue after baseline testing. RESULTS: The intervention was delivered successfully with low drop out (10%), high session completion (97%), and high program adherence. The intervention conditions showed significantly greater gains over time for knowledge, confidence, perceptions, and monitoring related to hearing aid management. Significant differences between groups were not observed for hearing aid use time. CONCLUSION: We found that we could successfully implement this eHealth program and that it benefitted the participants in terms of knowledge and confidence with skills important for hearing aid management. Future research is needed to determine how to roll programs like this out on a larger scale.

Using attribution theory to explore the reasons adults with hearing loss do not use their hearing aids.

Hearing aids are an effective treatment for individuals with hearing loss that have been shown to dampen (and sometime ameliorate) the negative effects of hearing loss. Despite the devices' efficacy, many reject hearing aids as a form of treatment. In the present qualitative study, we explored the reasons for hearing aid non-use in the United States that emerged from the stories of adults with hearing loss who do not to utilize hearing aids. We specifically used thematic analysis in concert with an attribution theory framework to identify and analyze recurring themes and reasons throughout these individuals' narratives. A total of nine themes describing reasons of hearing aid non-use emerged. Four reasons were internally motivated: (1) non-necessity, (2) stigmatization, (3) lack of integration into daily living, and (4) unreadiness due to lack of education; five reasons were externally motivated: (5) discomfort, (6) financial setback, (7) burden, (8) professional distrust, and (9) priority setting. These findings contribute to the field of hearing healthcare by providing professionals with insight into reasons that people across the provided when recounting their experiences following the diagnosis of hearing loss, prescription for hearing aids, and their hearing aid non-use. These findings are an important step toward the development of more effective, person-centered hearing healthcare that can best address these individuals' concerns and expectations surrounding hearing loss and hearing aids.

Narratives of identity: understanding the experiences of adults with hearing loss who use hearing aids.

Objective: We aimed to determine the identities that adults with hearing loss construct when telling stories about their experiences with hearing loss and hearing aids. Determining and understanding these identities is important because research shows that who a person believes themselves to be has implications for how they approach their healthcare, along with their emotional and physical wellbeing.Design: We employed a qualitative narrative approach. We then used thematic narrative analysis to identify emergent identities across stories gathered from hearing aid users. These themes allowed us to assign emergent identities to the hearing-aid users.Study Sample: Thirty adults with hearing loss who reported using their hearing aids during all waking hours.Results: Five identities emerged from the hearing-aid users' narratives: (1) the satisfied user, (2) the overcomer, (3) the dispassionate user, (4) the frustrated and resigned user, and (5) the griever.Conclusion: These findings are a first step to improving theoretical and clinical insights into the perspectives and experiences of satisfied hearing-aid users following diagnosis of their hearing loss and their hearing aid fittings. Such insights could ultimately improve hearing healthcare providers' abilities to employ person-centered care while helping adults with hearing loss seek out, implement, and adhere to treatment.