Educational Program for Hearing Aid Users With Internet Support

Sodra Alvsborgs Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hearing Impaired

Treatments: Behavioral: Control group; Behavioral: Intervention group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01837550

HörNet VGR

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to examine the short-term effects of complementing an educational program for hearing aid users with Internet support.

Full description

Aural rehabilitation aims to improve communication for people with hearing impairment. Education is widely regarded as an integral part of rehabilitation, but the effect of the delivery method of an educational program on the experience of hearing problems has rarely been investigated in controlled trials. Internet as a complement to aural rehabilitation has been tested in different studies with promising results. Though, until now not applied clinically as a part of an aural rehabilitation, focusing on hearing aid users with persistent self- reported hearing problems.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an internet-based aural rehabilitation for hearing aid users from a clinical population.

Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. The intervention group followed a five-week program that consisted of reading material, home training assignments, online and telephone interaction with an audiologist, and participation in a discussion forum. The control group only had access to reading material.

The Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Communication Strategies Scale (CSS) were used to measure the outcomes of this study; and were recorded before and directly after the intervention as well as 6 months post-intervention.

Enrollment: 74 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• the hearing aid users to be between 20 and 80 yr of age,
• the hearing aid users to have conductive or sensorineural hearing loss of mild to moderate degree (20-60 decibel Hearing Level pure-tone average measured across 500, 1000, and 2000 Hertz),
• the hearing aid users to have completed a hearing aid fitting at least 3 months before the study began (regardless of hearing aid manufacturer, model, or hearing aid outcomes),
• the hearing aid users to have a Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) score of >20 points (indicative of some residual self-reported hearing problems),
• the hearing aid users to provide informed consent to participate

Exclusion criteria

• the hearing aid users who are not fulfilling the conditions to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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74 participants in 2 patient groups

Control group

Active Comparator group

Description:

no professional support

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention group

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

Professional support via Internet

Treatment:

Behavioral: Control group