INSPIRES Hearing Health Trial - INnovative Psychological Intervention to REduce Stigma in Hearing Health Trial

University of Manchester

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hearing Loss

Treatments: Behavioral: Self-affirmation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04680845

2020-10597-17109

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background: Reminding people they are moral adaptable human beings ("self-affirming") reduces the perceived stigma associated with wearing hearing aids and increases actual hearing aid use. The proposed study aims to reduce stigma in a representative sample of people aged over 60 from the general population who may or may not already be wearing hearing aids and improve multiple hearing health outcomes (e.g., attending screening, device use).

Methods/Design: Double-blinded randomized controlled trial in which a representative sample of people aged over 60 from the general population will be asked to complete surveys about hearing stigma, hearing loss and multiple hearing health outcomes. Participants randomized to the control group will only complete the survey; participants in the intervention group will be asked to affirm their values. Six months later, all participants will complete the same survey to assess outcomes.

Discussion: The proposed research will lead to a brief psychological intervention to reduce stigma in relation to hearing loss/aids.

Full description

According to self-affirmation theory, defensiveness arises because people are motivated to defend their global sense of self-worth, which in the present case is threatened by perceptions of hearing aids/loss. However, if a person's self-image can be bolstered (affirmed) in a domain that is important to them, thereby preserving self-integrity, the individual should be less likely to process the threatening (i.e., stigmatizing in the present context) information defensively. Accumulated empirical evidence demonstrates that affirming the self: (a) reduces public stigma, (b) reduces self-stigma, and (c) causes meaningful changes in behaviour. Following a pilot-feasibility trial showing that self-affirming caused significant reductions in first-time hearing aid users' anxieties about ageing and increased their hearing aid use by almost 2 hours/day.

Enrollment: 3,012 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 60+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• UK-based adults
• Aged 60+

Exclusion criteria

• Adults younger than 60 years
• Not UK-based

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Triple Blind

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3,012 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-affirmation

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will be asked to complete a standard questionnaire including: The beginning to a sentence appears below. Below it are 4 different ways of completing the sentence. On the lines below, please write out the beginning of the sentence and then complete it with 1 of the 4 options we have given you. If I feel threatened or anxious, then I will... ...think about the things I value about myself * remember things that I have succeeded in * think about what I stand for * think about things that are important to me If...______________________________________________________________________

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-affirmation

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants will be asked to complete a standard questionnaire.