Self-efficacy, communication difficulties and readiness predict outcomes in new hearing aid users

Self-efficacy, communication difficulties and readiness predict outcomes in new hearing aid user

Applying the COM-B model to assess the usability of smartphone-connected listening devices in adults with hearing loss

Background: Unlike conventional hearing aids, smartphone-connected listening devices may require limited or no input from a trained audiologist in terms of device programming and adjustment. However, there is a lack of peer-reviewed evidence assessing the real-world perspectives of people living with hearing loss toward such technological innovations. Purpose: This study assessed the everyday experiences of adults living with hearing loss toward a range of smartphone-connected listening devices using the COM-B model as a theoretical framework. Research Design: A qualitative study whereby participants trialled one of the following smartphone-connected listening devices for two-weeks in their everyday lives: made-for-smartphone hearing aids, personal sound amplification product, smartphone ‘hearing aid’ app with wired earphones or wireless hearable. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. Study Sample: Twenty adults (13 male, 7 female; mean age = 62.25 years, SD = 11.59) with mild-moderate hearing loss (mean better ear pure-tone average = 30.49 dB HL, SD = 17.51) were recruited using a convenience sampling strategy. All participants owned conventional hearing aids. Results: The data were analysed using an established deductive thematic analysis procedure within the context of the COM-B model. The model stipulates that for individuals to engage in a particular behaviour (B), they must have sufficient capability (C), opportunity (O), and motivation (M). Capability: One of the key advantages facilitating use and adherence of smartphone-connected listening devices was the ability for participants to make fine-tune adjustments in any listening situation. Opportunity: Participants commented that these devices could address issues surrounding stigma, as smartphones are ubiquitous in everyday life. Motivation: Participants consistently reported that the ability to make adjustments via a smartphone provided them with a greater sense of autonomy and empowerment. As a result, they felt more in control of their hearing loss. Conclusions: This study lays the foundation for further high-quality research to explore whether smartphone-connected technologies have the potential to yield optimum benefits for people living with hearing loss

Knowledge is power: improving outcomes for patients, partners, and professionals in the digital age

Purpose The aim of this research was to develop and evaluate methods to address poor knowledge of hearing aids, hearing loss, and communication in patients, partners, and nonaudiologic health and social care professionals. Method An interactive multimedia educational program (C2Hear) has been co-produced with hearing aid users and audiologists to provide high-quality information and demonstrate complex concepts relating to hearing aids and communication. Results A randomized controlled trial showed numerous benefits for first-time hearing aid users that included better knowledge and skill, and increased hearing aid use and satisfaction. Patients reported that C2Hear was highly useful, enjoyable, and preferable to written information. C2Hear Online is now freely available on YouTube and has global reach, well in excess of 150,000 views. Further developments include a version for communication partners, which showed that joint-working between hearing aid users and their communication partners resulted in joint responsibility for communication that facilitated communication behaviors. In addition, a behavior theory-driven version for use with mobile technologies (m2Hear) has been designed to be tailored to the needs of individual hearing aid users. m2Hear includes more activities/interaction to maximize user engagement and learning. Finally, C2Hear has been used to improve hearing-related knowledge in other health and social care professionals, such as carehome assistants. Conclusion This range of educational programs and tools aims to improve knowledge and skills, leading to better outcomes for patients, partners, and health care professionals

Audiovisual integration in children listening to spectrally degraded speech

© 2015 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Purpose: The study explored whether visual information improves speech identification in typically developing children with normal hearing when the auditory signal is spectrally degraded. Method: Children (n = 69) and adults (n = 15) were presented with noise-vocoded sentences from the Children’s Co-ordinate Response Measure (Rosen, 2011) in auditoryonly or audiovisual conditions. The number of bands was adaptively varied to modulate the degradation of the auditory signal, with the number of bands required for approximately 79% correct identification calculated as the threshold. Results: The youngest children (4- to 5-year-olds) did not benefit from accompanying visual information, in comparison to 6- to 11-year-old children and adults. Audiovisual gain also increased with age in the child sample. Conclusions: The current data suggest that children younger than 6 years of age do not fully utilize visual speech cues to enhance speech perception when the auditory signal is degraded. This evidence not only has implications for understanding the development of speech perception skills in children with normal hearing but may also inform the development of new treatment and intervention strategies that aim to remediate speech perception difficulties in pediatric cochlear implant users

A randomized control trial assessing the effectiveness of the Ida Institute’s Why Improve My Hearing Telecare Tool in adults living with hearing loss.

Raw data (SPSS .sav file) from a randomized control trial assessing the effectiveness of the Ida Institute’s Why Improve My Hearing Telecare Tool in adults living with hearing loss

Supplementary information file for “Is this a new dawn for accessibility?” A qualitative interview study assessing teleworking experiences in adults with physical disabilities post Covid-19

Supplementary file for article “Is this a new dawn for accessibility?” A qualitative interview study assessing teleworking experiences in adults with physical disabilities post Covid-19   Background While employers plan how to restructure working practices after the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is essential that the disability community are represented in research addressing telework; their expertise is invaluable for ensuring equity from the outset. Objective The current study qualitatively investigated how people with physical disabilities negotiate telework in a post-Covid era. Methods Ten participants with a range of physical disabilities were recruited and interviewed. Themes were generated from the data utilising an established method of reflexive inductive thematic analysis. Results Increased flexibility as well as control over work schedules and the environment facilitated by teleworking, improved participants’ disability management, health, work performance, and personal opportunities. However, the importance of choice to work in-office, of implementing additional physical and virtual work adjustments, and of flexible work patterns to remove barriers to accessibility when homeworking was emphasised. Active efforts by employers to create an inclusive and flexible work culture were identified as crucial to ensure that integration and professional development of employees with disabilities, understanding of disability experience, and normalisation of accessibility needs are not diminished by the decreased visibility incurred by teleworking. Conclusions Teleworking is not a panacea for resolving the disability employment disadvantage. Rather, teleworking could be a springboard upon which further flexibility and choice can be built to shift organisational practices to better accommodate individual employees, with and without disabilities, post-Covid. It is imperative to act on such insights to create accessible workplaces to facilitate more inclusive workforces.</p

Assessing depressive symptoms and diabetes distress in Type 1 diabetic adults: A comparison of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) and multiple daily injections (MDI) users

This cross-sectional observational study assesses differences in depressive symptoms and diabetes-distress between adults with type 1 diabetes using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) or multiple daily injections (MDI) insulin delivery methods. Two-hundred and seventy-one adults with type 1 diabetes were recruited who used CSII (n = 104) or MDI (n = 167). Results show that, compared to CSII users, scores on the Severity Measure for Depression – Adult questionnaire and Management and Physician subscales on the Type 1 Diabetes Distress Scale were significantly lower in users of MDI. Thus, MDI users may require greater targetted support to improve these aspects of psychological wellbeing.</p

A reflection of using an online polling and Q&A platform as a method of engagement in undergraduate psychology lectures

Engaging a large cohort of students with teaching content is a difficult task for any educator working in higher education. When students are not receiving feedback about their participation efforts, this can lead to decreased engagement. Polling activities, such as hands up responses, can be used to address this, but often requires extensive input from the lecturer to set-up by thinking of questions and considering alternatives if students are not comfortable putting their hands up. However, there is now a plethora of online polling platforms (e.g., Vevox, Mentimeter) that can be used anonymously on mobile devices, to overcome these issues. Drawing upon the experiences of two educators within psychology, this paper specifically reflects upon how one of these platforms, Vevox, was implemented within first- and second-year psychology undergraduate modules. Reflections demonstrated that students found the use of Vevox to be a very positive experience; students appreciated the use of different Vevox activities and found that the anonymity afforded by the platform was beneficial in increasing engagement with the activities during teaching sessions. From these reflections, we offer guidance regarding the implementation of online and offline polling platforms.</p

“Is this a new dawn for accessibility?” A qualitative interview study assessing teleworking experiences in adults with physical disabilities post Covid-19

Background While employers plan how to restructure working practices after the initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it is essential that the disability community are represented in research addressing telework; their expertise is invaluable for ensuring equity from the outset. Objective The current study qualitatively investigated how people with physical disabilities negotiate telework in a post-Covid era. Methods Ten participants with a range of physical disabilities were recruited and interviewed. Themes were generated from the data utilising an established method of reflexive inductive thematic analysis. Results Increased flexibility as well as control over work schedules and the environment facilitated by teleworking, improved participants’ disability management, health, work performance, and personal opportunities. However, the importance of choice to work in-office, of implementing additional physical and virtual work adjustments, and of flexible work patterns to remove barriers to accessibility when homeworking was emphasised. Active efforts by employers to create an inclusive and flexible work culture were identified as crucial to ensure that integration and professional development of employees with disabilities, understanding of disability experience, and normalisation of accessibility needs are not diminished by the decreased visibility incurred by teleworking. Conclusions Teleworking is not a panacea for resolving the disability employment disadvantage. Rather, teleworking could be a springboard upon which further flexibility and choice can be built to shift organisational practices to better accommodate individual employees, with and without disabilities, post-Covid. It is imperative to act on such insights to create accessible workplaces to facilitate more inclusive workforces.</p

The association between non-communicable disease and hearing aid adoption in older adults with hearing loss

Objective. To assess whether specific non-communicable diseases are associated with hearing aid adoption in older adults with hearing loss.Design. A cross-sectional, observational study.Study sample. Data was obtained from one of the largest pharmacy-led health and beauty retailers in the United Kingdom. In total, 17,172 older adults were included.Results. Greater odds of adopting hearing aids were associated with being older (Odds ratio [OR]= 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI]= 1.02, 1.03), having fewer self-reported hearing difficulties (OR= 0.61; 95% CI= 0.58, 0.64), and greater audiometric hearing loss (OR= 1.68; 95% CI= 1.54, 1.83). The odds of adopting hearing aids were lower if individuals self-reported hypertension (OR= 0.87; 95% CI= 0.79, 0.97) and diabetes (OR= 0.83; 95% CI= 0.72, 0.95). Using a decision tree model, self-reported hearing difficulties, audiometric hearing loss, and age were the best combination of variables to differentiate between individuals that did and did not adopt hearing aids.Conclusions. This study demonstrates that hearing aid adoption is lower in older adults with cardiovascular disease risk factors. Thus, there is a need for healthcare professionals to identify older adults living with hearing loss and cardiovascular ill-health, ensuring that they receive appropriate patient-centred support to manage their health. </div