Assessing hearing loss self-management in older adults.

Objective: To evaluate the capacity of a self-management assessment tool to identify unmet hearing health care (HHC) needs; to determine whether such an assessment yields novel and clinically useful information.

Design: Hearing loss self-management (HLSM) was assessed with the Partners in Health scale and the Cue and Response interview from the Flinders Chronic Condition Management Program™. The results of the scale and the interview were compared to determine the extent to which they each contributed to the assessment of HLSM.

Study Sample: Thirty older adults who currently receive HHC.

Results: The two assessment tools were useful in identifying the specific domains in which participants lacked good HLSM skills. While participants tended to have a high level of knowledge about hearing loss and technology-based interventions, many reported the presence of unmet psychosocial needs with no clear plan for addressing them. There was considerable variation in terms of the extent to which their audiologists facilitated shared decision-making.

Conclusions: The results suggest that HLSM has the potential to play an important role in audiological rehabilitation. A HLSM assessment tool that more precisely matches the unique needs of people with hearing loss should be developed, along with interventions to meet those needs.