Does the Ida tool `My Hearing Loss Explained' result in improved understanding of the consequences of hearing loss among older hearing impaired individuals seeking help for their hearing for the first time?

Project Details

Description

Health literacy is the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Individual differences in heath literacy have been shown to impact success of self-management for chronic diseases and the use of assistive technology in general (Williams et al. 1998), and specifically as it pertains to hearing and hearing aids (Klyn et al., 2020). This is problematic because the language audiologists use often far exceeds the average literacy level of the population (Nair and Cienkowski, 2010; Sciacca et al., 2017). To our knowledge none of this work has examined the specific vocabulary used by audiologists with their clients, nor how clients understand and interpret specific content.
Audiometric testing is a major component of the initial clinical assessment for individuals seeking help for their hearing. It is used by audiologists to assess the need for, and form of, intervention recommended, as well as for explaining the hearing loss and its consequences to the client. There are concerns that the key messages, implications and relevance might not be clearly understood by many clients. Recently the Ida Institute developed a tool ‘My Hearing Explained’ (see Appendix A) that aims to make hearing test results easier to relate to clients through use of simple language and familiar icons. However, the extent to which this is achieved in practice has not been examined. The aim of this study is to determine whether the Ida ‘My Hearing Explained’ tool results in an improved understanding of hearing loss and its consequences among older hearing impaired individuals seeking help for their hearing for the first time.
The study has been funded by the Ida Institute.

Study Objectives
1. Compare the vocabulary used by audiologists when explaining hearing loss and its consequences using the standard audiogram, with that used when using the Ida ‘My Hearing Explained’ tool.
2. Compare the client’s understanding and interpretation of the information provided by audiologists when explaining hearing loss and its consequences using the standard audiogram, with that used when using the Ida ‘My Hearing Explained’ tool.
3. Depending on the outcome of parts (1) and (2), changes to the Ida tool and/or vocabulary to use when using the tool in clinical practice will be recommended.
Short titleR:KCA Ida tool
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/09/2031/08/21

Keywords

  • person-centred care
  • auditory rehabilitation

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