What do hearing healthcare professionals do to promote hearing aid use and benefit among adults? A systematic review

Objective: To conduct a systematic review of the evidence in relation to what hearing healthcare professionals do during hearing aid consultations and identifying which behaviours promote hearing aid use and benefit among adult patients. Design: Searches were performed in electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Web of Science, PubMed and Google Scholar. The Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool and Melnyk Levels of Evidence were used to assess quality and level of evidence of eligible studies. Behaviours of hearing healthcare professionals were summarised descriptively. Study Sample: 17 studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: Twelve studies described behaviours of audiologists and five studies were intervention studies. Audiologists were typically task- or technically-oriented and/or dominated the interaction during hearing aid consultations. Two intervention studies suggested that use of motivational interviewing techniques by audiologists may increase hearing aid use in patients. Conclusions: Most studies of clinicians’ behaviours were descriptive, with very little research linking clinician behaviour to patient outcomes. The present review sets the research agenda for better-controlled intervention studies to identify which clinician behaviours better promote patient hearing aid outcomes and develop an evidence base for best clinical practice

Clinical training for the audiology students of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) during the covid-19 pandemic: the challenges vs. opportunities

Going through this pandemic, the Department of Audiology & Speech Language Pathology (DASLP), IIUM has adapted and devised several methods to help with the students’ clinical training, which includes Tele- Audiology services, virtual external clinical placement, simulated online clinic, online clinical observation and virtual clinical examinatio

Hearing status among smokers using extended high frequency pure tone audiometry (EHFPTA) and distortional product of otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE)

Objective: The purpose of this study is to measure the hearing level among smokers using high frequency sensitive testing which are extended high frequency Pure Tone Audiometry (EHFPTA) and Distortional Product of Otoacoustics Emissions (DPOAE). This study focuses on four specific objectives which determine the hearing level of smokers at high frequencies, identifying amplitude of DPOAE in measuring damage level of hearing cell in cochlea, correlating the smoking duration on hearing and lastly, smoking quantity per day effects on hearing. Methods: 30 subjects participated in this study whereby they were divided into testing groups (smokers) and control groups (non-smokers). Results: The result of this study found that there are elevation of threshold at 16 KHz, 18 KHz and 20 KHz among smokers compared to non-smokers depending on duration (years) and quantity of smoking (per day). The higher the number of cigarettes being smoked per day, and the longer duration of smoking, the higher the potential of getting hearing loss. This study result also found that the longer the duration of smoking (years), it also may increase the chance of hearing elevation especially at high frequency. Mean amplitudes of DPOAE among smokers was significantly low compared to non-smokers except on 1.5 KHz and 8 KHz. Conclusion: This study implies that the damaging effects of smoking tend to reduce the hearing sensitivity at extended high frequency first which later can be progressively affected on other frequency range of hearing