Hearing Impairment, Strategies, and Outcomes in Emergency Departments (Hear-VA)

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Emergency Service; Hearing Loss; Hospital Readmission

Treatments: Other: No PockeTalker; Other: PockeTalker

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT03594500

IIR 17-068

HX002421-01 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Aim 1: Establish the feasibility of screening for hearing loss in the ED Aim 2: Determine the acceptability of the screening procedure (among the ED population) Aim 3: Derive a preliminary estimate of the effect size of primary outcomes Aim 4: Identify the evidence that decision makers in Veteran Affair Medical Centers, ED and Audiology Services need to commit to this approach

Full description

The goal of this study is to test whether providing hearing assistance devices to older age hearing impaired patients in the ED setting will improve in-ED understanding and preparation for discharge. The proposed intervention, the Hearing Impairment, Strategies and Outcomes in VA Emergency Departments (HearVA-ED) will be conducted in the Emergency Departments of the Manhattan and Brooklyn VAs of the New York Harbor Healthcare System and will recruit hearing impaired ED patients who are 60 years and older and have been admitted to the ED with a low acuity triage score indicating a high likelihood of discharge home. The investigators will identify hearing impairment by using the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly survey (HHIE-S). The investigators will randomize consenting patients who fail the screening to either receipt of a simple hearing assistance device (a "PockeTalkerTM") during their ED stay or usual care. The investigators will test whether the provision of a PockeTalkerTM is feasible in this environment (by measuring the amount of device use), whether providing the device improves self-reported quality of hearing and understanding during the ED stay, and whether use of the device improves the quality of preparation for post-discharge care. If this randomized controlled trial demonstrates beneficial effects for in-ED use of a simple hearing assistance device for hearing impaired patients, this strategy can be disseminated throughout the VA healthcare system.

Enrollment: 133 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English or Spanish speaking
• Emergency severity index criterion of 4 or 5 (low acuity)
• Hearing Handicap Impairment Evaluation Screen greater than or equal to 24
• Capacity to consent to participate in research

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to consent to participate in research
• Emergency severity index criterion of 1-3 (high acuity)
• Hearing Handicap Impairment Evaluation Screen less than 24
• Inability to speak English or Spanish

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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133 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention: PockeTalker

Experimental group

Description:

Consenting participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention group while receiving care in the emergency department

Treatment:

Other: PockeTalker

Control: No PockeTalker

Other group

Description:

Consenting participants will be randomly assigned to the control group while receiving care in the emergency department

Treatment:

Other: No PockeTalker