Occupational Stress in United Kingdom Audiologists.

Purpose: Occupational stress is known to have detrimental effects on health care professionals worldwide. This study aimed to address a research gap by investigating sources and levels of occupational stress in U.K.

The impact of using the Ida "My Hearing Explained" tool on audiologists' language and patient understanding of hearing test results: a comparison with standard audiogram explanations.

Objective: Explore the impact of Ida's "My Hearing Explained" (MHE) tool on audiologists' language and patients' understanding/interpretation of hearing test results.

Design: Audiologists were video-recorded in two sequential conditions: 1) giving standard audiogram explanations to 13 patients and, 2) following discretionary self-training, giving explanations using the MHE tool (nine patients). Outcomes of interest were audiologists' language complexity, use of jargon, and audiologist-patient interactivity.

Predicting Individual Hearing-Aid Preference From Self-Reported Listening Experiences in Daily Life.

Objectives: The study compared the utility of two approaches for collecting real-world listening experiences to predict hearing-aid preference: a retrospective questionnaire (Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale [SSQ]) and in-situ Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). The rationale being that each approach likely provides different and yet complementary information. In addition, it was examined how self-reported listening activity and hearing-aid data-logging can augment EMAs for individualized and contextualized hearing outcome assessments.

Understanding, experience and attitudes towards artificial intelligence technologies for clinical decision support in hearing health: a mixed-methods survey of healthcare professionals in the UK.

Objectives: Clinician acceptance influences technology adoption, but UK health professionals' attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI) in hearing healthcare are unclear. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap.

Methods: An online survey, based on the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys, was distributed to audiologists, ENT specialists and general practitioners.

Combining Cardiovascular and Pupil Features Using k-Nearest Neighbor Classifiers to Assess Task Demand, Social Context, and Sentence Accuracy During Listening.

In daily life, both acoustic factors and social context can affect listening effort investment. In laboratory settings, information about listening effort has been deduced from pupil and cardiovascular responses independently. The extent to which these measures can jointly predict listening-related factors is unknown.

Evaluating Real-World Benefits of Hearing Aids With Deep Neural Network-Based Noise Reduction: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Purpose: Noise reduction technologies in hearing aids provide benefits under controlled conditions. However, differences in their real-life effectiveness are not established. We propose that a deep neural network (DNN)-based noise reduction system trained on naturalistic sound environments will provide different real-life benefits compared to traditional systems.

Remote hearing-aid delivery and support: perspectives of patients and their hearing care providers.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of patients and hearing care providers (HCPs) about an adult remote hearing-aid delivery service implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Service evaluation via surveys. The patient survey measured satisfaction with the service, perceived hearing-aid handling skills, and preferences for future services.

Do UK audiologists feel able to address the hearing, social and emotional needs of their adult patients with hearing loss.

Objective: The aim of this project was to investigate the provision of counselling in adult audiological rehabilitation and to highlight training barriers and needs.

Design: A service evaluation in which respondents completed a survey in which they rated their knowledge, confidence and competence in addressing the hearing, social and emotional needs of their patients. They were also asked to define counselling.

Mobile audiometry for hearing threshold assessment: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: Technological advancements in mobile audiometry (MA) have enabled hearing assessment using tablets and smartphones. This systematic review (PROSPERO ID: CRD42021274761) aimed to identify MA options available to health providers, assess their accuracy in measuring hearing thresholds, and explore factors that might influence their accuracy.

Design And Setting: A systematic search of online databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, Evidence Search and Dynamed was conducted on 13th December 2021, and repeated on 30th October 2022, using appropriate Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms.

Fitting a Hearing Aid on the Better Ear, Worse Ear, or Both: Associations of Hearing-aid Fitting Laterality with Outcomes in a Large Sample of US Veterans.

Longitudinal electronic health records from a large sample of new hearing-aid (HA) recipients in the US Veterans Affairs healthcare system were used to evaluate associations of fitting laterality with long-term HA use persistence as measured by battery order records, as well as with short-term HA use and satisfaction as assessed using the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA), completed within 180 days of HA fitting. The large size of our dataset allowed us to address two aspects of fitting laterality that have not received much attention, namely the degree of hearing asymmetry and the question of which ear to fit if fitting unilaterally. The key findings were that long-term HA use persistence was considerably lower for unilateral fittings for symmetric hearing loss (HL) and for unilateral worse-ear fittings for asymmetric HL, as compared to bilateral and unilateral better-ear fittings.

Combining Multiple Psychophysiological Measures of Listening Effort: Challenges and Recommendations.

About one-third of all recently published studies on listening effort have used at least one physiological measure, providing evidence of the popularity of such measures in listening effort research. However, the specific measures employed, as well as the rationales used to justify their inclusion, vary greatly between studies, leading to a literature that is fragmented and difficult to integrate. A unified approach that assesses multiple psychophysiological measures justified by a single rationale would be preferable because it would advance our understanding of listening effort.

Copresence Was Found to Be Related to Some Pupil Measures in Persons With Hearing Loss While They Performed a Speech-in-Noise Task.

Objectives: To assess if a manipulation of copresence was related to speech-in-noise task performance, arousal, and effort of persons with hearing loss. Task-related arousal and effort were measured by means of pupillometry.

Design: Twenty-nine participants (mean age: 64.

Reporting of auditory symptoms over time: (in)consistencies, expectations and the nocebo effect.

Consistent symptom reporting for conditions like tinnitus that do not have an associated sign is critical for evaluating severity and intervention effectiveness, and for interpreting research findings. There is little research examining reporting of tinnitus and hearing difficulty over time. We address this here by comparing reported hearing difficulty and tinnitus at two time-points.

Dementia and hearing-aid use: a two-way street.

Objectives: Hearing-aid use may reduce risk of dementia, but cognitive impairment makes use more challenging. An observed association between reduced hearing-aid use and incident dementia could reflect either or both of these causal paths. The objective was to examine the effects of each path while minimising contamination between paths.

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Virus (COVID-19) Preventative Measures on Communication: A Scoping Review.

Introduction: Face coverings and distancing as preventative measures against the spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 may impact communication in several ways that may disproportionately affect people with hearing loss. A scoping review was conducted to examine existing literature on the impact of preventative measures on communication and to characterize the clinical implications.

Method: A systematic search of three electronic databases (Scopus, PubMed, CINAHL) was conducted yielding 2,158 articles.

Shedding Light on SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, COVID-19 Vaccination, and Auditory Symptoms: Causality or Spurious Conjunction?

There are reports of associations between SARS-CoV2, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines, and auditory symptoms (hearing difficulty, tinnitus). However, most studies have relied on self-report and lack baseline and/or non-COVID control groups. This makes it problematic to differentiate if symptoms are associated with SARS-CoV2, COVID-19, the vaccine, psychosocial factors or recall bias.

Impact of Hearing Loss on Communication During Remote Health Care Encounters.

Satisfaction with telemedicine is generally high; however, it can lead to communication problems for people with hearing loss (HL), especially when encounters are conducted by telephone, because of the inability to see the face and lips on which many people with HL rely. Despite acknowledgement that HL might affect telemedicine outcomes, no studies have directly examined this. The primary aims of this study were to determine whether and how HL impacts patient satisfaction and willingness to use telemedicine.

Real-World Hearing Aid Usage Patterns and Smartphone Connectivity.

Data for monitoring individual hearing aid usage has historically been limited to retrospective questionnaires or data logged intrinsically in the hearing aid cumulatively over time (e. g., days or more).

Barriers and facilitators to delivery of group audiological rehabilitation programs: a survey based on the COM-B model.

Objective: To canvas the views of Australia-based hearing healthcare clinicians regarding group audiological rehabilitation practices.

Design: A national cross-sectional self-report survey. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis.