This study provides further evidence that the internet can be used to deliver intervention of rehabilitation to hearing-aid users.

BackgroundThe future rehabilitation of adults with hearing loss is likely to involve online tools used by individuals at home. Online tools could also be useful for people who are not seeking professional help for their hearing problems. Hearing impairment is a disability that increases with age, and increased age is still associated with reduced use of the Internet. Therefore, to continue the research on online audiological rehabilitative tools for people with hearing loss, it is important to determine if and to what extent adults with hearing loss use the Internet.ObjectiveTo evaluate the use of the Internet and email in a group of adults with hearing loss and to investigate if their use of Internet and email differed between genders, among different age groups, and how it compared with the general population in Sweden.MethodsQuestionnaires containing multiple-choice questions about Internet access, email use, and educational level were mailed to individuals with hearing loss, who were registered as patients at a hearing aid clinic. Out of the 269 invited participants, 158 returned a completed questionnaire, which was a response rate of 58.7%.ResultsThe results showed that 60% (94/158) of the participants with hearing loss used computers and the Internet. The degree of hearing loss in the group of participants did not explain the level of Internet usage, while factors of age, gender, and education did (P<.001). More men than women used the Internet (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.32-4.91, P<.001). Use of the Internet was higher in the youngest age group (25-64 years) compared to the oldest age group (75-96 years, P=.001). A higher usage of the Internet was observed in the participants with hearing loss, especially the elderly, when compared with the general population of Sweden (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.23-3.17, P=.04).ConclusionsWe conclude that the use of computers and the Internet overall is at least at the same level for people with hearing loss as for the general age-matched population in Sweden, but that this use is even higher in specific age groups. These results are important for the future work in developing and evaluating rehabilitative educational online tools for adults with hearing loss.

This study suggests that the narrative embodied in a given fitting process can have a substantial effect on the perceived benefit of the treatment, independent of any acoustical differences, at least for experienced users. For first-time users, acclimatization seems to overshadow the purely narrative effect of any fitting process. In the future, research study designs should include steps to avoid narrative effects when technical parameters of hearing aids are the intended object of study. In clinical practice, the narrative is part of the therapeutic context, and one may design it for maximum beneficial effect.

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Objective: This study explored the psychological process from avoidance to acceptance in adults with acquired hearing impairment. Study design: A descriptive qualitative interview study was conducted in Sweden in 2010. Participants were 18 adults with an acquired sensorineural hearing impairment aged 50–70 years, who had recently obtained hearing aids at the Audiology Clinic of the Örebro University Hospital. The sample included both first-time hearing aid users (n = 10) and experienced hearing aid users (n = 8). Each participant took part in one semi-structured interview. Qualitative content analysis was performed on the manifest content of the interview transcripts. Results: Participants described the process from avoidance to acceptance as a slow and gradual process rooted in the awareness of the frequency and severity of hearing disability and of its psychological consequences. Facilitators included adaptive coping mechanisms, other people's comments and positive experiences, accessibility of help-seeking and routine health assessments. In contrast, barriers included maladaptive coping mechanisms and stigma. Conclusions: Participants described the process of acceptance as a personal process that involved, to some extent, their social network of family, friends and colleagues. It was also a trade-off between the consequences of untreated hearing impairment and the threat to normal identity that, through stigma, hearing impairment carries. Further studies are needed to fully investigate the role of access to information on hearing impairment acceptance. How professionals and society can facilitate the process of acceptance should also be a focus of future research efforts.