Exploring Factors Enabling Hearing Aid Usage: Perspectives of Hearing Aid Users and Audiologists

Background of the Research: Higher prevalence of hearing loss is reported among older adults. Hearing aids have been proven to be a viable option to reduce the burden associated with hearing impairment. Despite these positive aspects, there is no increase seen in hearing aid adoption or usage among individuals with hearing impairment. Objective: To explore the aspects favoring hearing aid usage among individuals with hearing impairment based on hearing aid users’ and audiologists’ perspectives. Method: The present study used inductive thematic analysis. The participants were 12 hearing aid users and 12 Audiologists. The study was conducted in interview mode either face-to-face or telephonic mode. The verbatim of the participants was transcribed and different codes were assigned. The codes were used to derive the subthemes and themes. Results: Four major themes were obtained. The first and second themes were Client-centred and Clinician-centred aspects respectively. The third theme focussed on Hearing aid trial and service delivery aspects. The fourth theme discussed mainly Hearing aid-associated benefits and drawbacks. Conclusion: Audiologist should effectively address the challenges posted by hearing aid users, this in turn can favor the hearing adoption among the adults with hearing loss.