Protocol for the co-design of an online support service for adults with hearing loss.

Introduction: Untreated hearing loss is reported to negatively impact on an individual's quality of life, affecting their psychological and physical health and placing them at greater risk of developing dementia. Despite this, hearing loss management is often delayed by up to a decade. This is likely due to difficulties in navigating the hearing care pathway, and the absence of a central, unbiased reference point for consumer-friendly hearing health information and resources.

Consumer and audiologist perspectives on hearables: a qualitative study.

Objective: We aimed to explore (i) what adults with hearing difficulties want and need from hearables, which we defined as any non-medical personal sound amplification product, and (ii) what hearing care professionals think about hearables.

Design: This was an exploratory, qualitative study conducted using separate focus groups with adults with hearing difficulties and audiologists. Data were analysed inductively using reflexive thematic analysis.

What's in a name? A systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of non-medical amplification devices in adults with mild and moderate hearing losses.

Objective: To assess non-medical amplification devices in adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and the impact of device features on outcomes.

Design: A prospectively registered systematic review.

Study Sample: Ten studies evaluating personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), and four evaluating smartphone amplification applications (or apps).

Clinical Assessment Tools for the Detection of Cognitive Impairment and Hearing Loss in the Ageing Population: A Scoping Review.

Objective: There is a strong association between cognitive impairment and hearing loss, both highly prevalent in the ageing population. Early detection of both hearing loss and cognitive impairment is essential in the management of these conditions to ensure effective and informed decisions on healthcare. The main objective was to identify existing and emerging cognitive and auditory assessment tools used in clinical settings (eg, memory clinics, audiology clinics), which manage the ageing population.

Refinement and Validation of the Empowerment Audiology Questionnaire: Rasch Analysis and Traditional Psychometric Evaluation.

Objectives: Empowerment is the process through which individuals with hearing-related challenges acquire and use knowledge, skills and strategies, and increase self-efficacy, participation, and control of their hearing health care, hearing solutions, and everyday lives. The aim was to refine and validate the Empowerment Audiology Questionnaire (EmpAQ), a hearing-specific measure of empowerment. This was achieved through (1) refinement via Rasch analysis (study 1), and (2) traditional psychometric analysis of the final survey structure (study 2).

The audiological rehabilitation of workers with hearing loss in the UK: a qualitative study of workers' perspectives.

Purpose: Unaddressed hearing loss can adversely affect employment and day-to-day work-life. Efficient and effective audiology support can help optimise hearing in the workplace. This study explores the audiological rehabilitation experiences of workers with hearing loss (WHL).

Remote Technologies to Enhance Service Delivery for Adults: Clinical Research Perspectives.

There are many examples of remote technologies that are clinically effective and provide numerous benefits to adults with hearing loss. Despite this, the uptake of remote technologies for hearing healthcare has been both low and slow until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been a key driver for change globally. The time is now right to take advantage of the many benefits that remote technologies offer, through clinical, consumer, or hybrid services and channels.

Social-emotional well-being and adult hearing loss: clinical recommendations.

: Best-practice in audiological rehabilitation takes a holistic client- and family-centred approach and considers hearing care in the context of personal well-being. Hearing loss not only impairs the ability to hear, but can also compromise the ability to communicate, thus negatively impacting both social and emotional well-being. Hearing care professionals play a key role in fostering their client's well-being.

A protocol for the Hearing impairment in Adults: A Longitudinal Outcomes Study (HALOS).

Background: Often considered an "invisible disability", hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases and the third leading cause for years lived with disability worldwide. Hearing loss has substantial impacts on communication, psychological wellbeing, social connectedness, cognition, quality of life, and economic independence. The Hearing impairment in Adults: a Longitudinal Outcomes Study (HALOS) aims to evaluate the: (1) impacts of hearing devices (hearing aids and/or cochlear implants), (2) differences in timing of these interventions and in long-term outcomes between hearing aid and cochlear implant users, and (3) cost-effectiveness of early intervention for adult-onset hearing loss among hearing device users.

Development of a self-report measure of empowerment along the hearing health journey: a content evaluation study.

Objective: To conduct the first phases in the development of a self-report measure of empowerment on the hearing health journey, specifically, item generation and content evaluation of the initial pool of items generated.

Design: A content expert panel survey and cognitive interviews were conducted. Descriptive statistics were obtained for the quantitative data, and the cognitive interviews were analysed using thematic analysis.

Defining a Patient-Centred Core Outcome Domain Set for the Assessment of Hearing Rehabilitation With Clients and Professionals.

Background: A variety of outcome domains are currently measured for the assessment of hearing rehabilitation. To date, there is no consensus about which outcome domains should be measured, when they should be measured, and how they should be measured. In addition, most studies seeking to develop core outcome sets and measures for hearing rehabilitation services have primarily focussed on the opinions and expertise of researchers, and, to a lesser extent, clinicians, rather than also involving clients of those services.

"We forget about peoples' hearing loss": identifying key aspects of hearing aid and communication training in residential care homes.

Objectives: The first objective was to assess the feasibility of training on hearing aids and communication strategies by support workers in residential care a cascade training model using two different training packages. The second was to identify key elements of these packages to inform the design of a multimedia training package.

Design: Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used.

Hearing From You: Design Thinking in Audiological Research.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe the emerging use of design thinking methodologies in hearing health care research using a participatory action approach with a consumer and community involvement panel, audiologists, and adults with hearing loss.

Method: Two connected hearing health care projects that adopted design thinking principles are presented here as case studies. Case 1 investigated the applicability and acceptability of smart voice assistant technology as post-hearing aid fitting support.

A qualitative study showing that a telecare tool can have benefits before and during the initial hearing assessment appointment.

Objective: To examine patient and audiologist experiences and perspectives of using a patient-centred telecare tool, the Ida Institute's Why Improve My Hearing? (WIMH) Tool, before and during the initial hearing assessment appointment.

Design: A qualitative study comprising individual semi-structured interviews using a maximum variation sampling strategy. The data were analysed using an established thematic analysis technique.

Evaluation of home-delivered live-voice auditory training for adult hearing aid users involving their communication partners: a randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To examine the benefits of home-delivered auditory training for adult hearing aid users using live-voice conversations in the presence of a single-talker distractor (experimental group) or in quiet (active-control group).

Design: Randomised controlled trial. The experimental group held conversations with their nominated communication partner in the presence of a single-talker distractor set to a challenging level, 30 min/day, 5 days/week over 4 weeks.

Smartphone-Connected Hearing Aids Enable and Empower Self-Management of Hearing Loss: A Qualitative Interview Study Underpinned by the Behavior Change Wheel.

Objectives: To identify patient-reported barriers and facilitators to using smartphone-connected hearing aids, using the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW) to understand experiences and how these can be addressed.

Design: A single-center, prospective, observational study. Eight hearing aid users (new = 1, existing = 7; mean age = 71.

Cogmed Training Does Not Generalize to Real-World Benefits for Adult Hearing Aid Users: Results of a Blinded, Active-Controlled Randomized Trial.

Objectives: Performance on working memory tasks is positively associated with speech-in-noise perception performance, particularly where auditory inputs are degraded. It is suggested that interventions designed to improve working memory capacity may improve domain-general working memory performance for people with hearing loss, to benefit their real-world listening. We examined whether a 5-week training program that primarily targets the storage component of working memory (Cogmed RM, adaptive) could improve cognition, speech-in-noise perception and self-reported hearing in a randomized controlled trial of adult hearing aid users with mild to moderate hearing loss, compared with an active control (Cogmed RM, nonadaptive) group of adults from the same population.

Consensus on connected hearing health technologies and service delivery models in the UK: a Delphi review.

Objective: To develop a consensus among hearing healthcare professionals in the UK on connected hearing health technologies and service delivery models.

Design: A three-round, electronic Delphi review was developed using a participatory-design approach. This included ten open-ended questions (round one) that informed 69 Likert-scaled statements (rounds two and three).

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.

Understanding patient empowerment along the hearing health journey.

Objective: Related to the hearing health journey, this study aimed to: (i) explore how empowerment manifests itself from individuals' first awareness of hearing loss through to hearing aid fitting and then to becoming an active hearing aid user, (ii) identify points when the different dimensions of empowerment are most relevant, and (iii) conceptualise empowerment.

Design: A semi-structured interview study was conducted, followed by a template analysis of the data.

Study Sample: Adult hearing aid users from Sweden ( = 8) and Australia ( = 10) who had worn hearing aids for between 6 and 36 months.

Audiological approaches to address the psychosocial needs of adults with hearing loss: perceived benefit and likelihood of use.

Objective: To explore the perceived benefit and likely implementation of approaches used by audiologists to address their adult clients' psychosocial needs related to hearing loss.

Design: Adults with hearing loss and audiologists completed separate, but related, surveys to rate their perceived benefit and also their likely use of 66 clinical approaches (divided over seven themes) that aim to address psychosocial needs related to hearing loss.

Study Sample: A sample of 52 Australian adults with hearing loss, and an international sample of 19 audiologists.

The feasibility of an m-health educational programme (m2Hear) to improve outcomes in first-time hearing aid users.

Objective: To (i) assess the delivery, accessibility, usability, acceptability, and adherence, and (ii) identify suitable outcome measures, for a mobile-enhanced multimedia educational programme (m2Hear) in first-time hearing aid users.

Design: A prospective, single-centre feasibility study.

Study Sample: First-time hearing aid users (n = 59), recruited at their initial hearing assessment.

Identifying the approaches used by audiologists to address the psychosocial needs of their adult clients.

Objective: To identify the approaches taken by audiologists to address their adult clients' psychosocial needs related to hearing loss.

Design: A participatory mixed methods design. Participants generated statements describing the ways in which the psychosocial needs of their adult clients with hearing loss are addressed, and then grouped the statements into themes.

Human-Technology Interaction Considerations in Hearing Health Care: An Introduction for Audiologists.

Purpose Innovations in user-driven hearing technology and services have placed greater control in the hands of the patient. While these advances could address issues of hearing health care accessibility, their success rests on the assumption that patients possess sufficient technological competence to self-manage these products and services successfully. The purpose of this tutorial is to highlight the importance of focusing on usability, rather than just performance outcomes, during the design, development, and evaluation of user-driven hearing technology and services.