Purpose
The purpose of this study was to better understand the behaviors that hearing aid users engage in to manage batteries.
Method
Two arms of research, a survey of audiologists (
n
= 110) and qualitative interviews with adult hearing aid users (
n
= 13), were conducted. Surveys were distributed and collected both via paper and online methods. Descriptive analyses of survey results were conducted to report on common threads. Qualitative interviews were conducted with video recording for transcription purposes. These transcripts were then coded thematically to identify shared themes across participants.
Results
Results of this study highlight the variability in behavior between provider-recommended strategies (preemptive battery management) and the reactive/delay strategies that are implemented by users. Patient reports indicate several challenges related to changing their batteries including limited information on hearing aid batteries, physical/sensory challenges to the act, and the social impact of having to change hearing aid batteries. Concurrently, patients express a wide range of strategies to address other challenges including engaging in cost-conscious behaviors when managing batteries (both purchasing and deciding to replace) and maintaining a collection of easily accessible batteries for use.
Conclusions
Hearing aid batteries are a topic that reflect social and economic factors in a patient's life. While providers may report they cover these topics sufficiently, challenges related to batteries may need specific elucidation by the clinician to ensure adherence to recommendations and functioning devices.
The pediatric medical home is a model to provide quality health care to a child that is coordinated and overseen by a team of professionals who are grounded in family-centered practice (Cleveland Clinic, 2012
;
Munoz, Nelson, Bradham, Hoffman, & Houston, 2011). The medical home can be a centralized, consolidated, and comprehensive approach to address concerns for a child and can bolster the early intervention goals of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention ([EHDI]; Buchino et al., 2019
;
Munoz, Shisler, Moeller, & White, 2009
;
Munoz et al., 2011). With early access to screening information for children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, the medical home plays a role in early diagnostic services and follow-up care that are critical to EHDI. This connection allows for discussion of how the medical home can exist and be supported within the context of existing service provision systems as a potential preemptive intervention to address the needs of children and families. By reviewing publicly accessible materials, the state of Connecticut can be used as a case study to look at various methods of medical home engagement with the outcome of supporting EHDI-based benchmarks (Connecticut Department of Public Health, 2014
,
2018). At the same time, a novel means of data collection through the medical home is proposed.
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