m-health technologies for hearing aid users
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The development and feasibility of m-health technologies to improve hearing aid use and benefit in first-time hearing aid users
IRAS ID
213341
Contact name
Melanie Ferguson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Research & Innovation
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 30 days
Research summary
People with hearing loss struggle to hold conversations with others. This can be socially isolating and lowers quality of life. Hearing aids help overcome hearing loss. However, many people know little about them. Hearing aids can be difficult to use and do not give perfect hearing. Many hearing aids are therefore abandoned or underused.
In the past, we have worked with hearing aid users to produce multimedia, interactive educational videos about how best to use hearing aids and to communicate well. We have shown that these videos improve patient’s knowledge of hearing aids and communication. They have also increased hearing aid use and improved patient’s confidence.
Educational videos can be improved by tailoring them to the needs of each person. They can also be more easily accessed by running them on the internet. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, provide an ideal means to achieve this.
This research aims to work with hearing aid users to adapt our existing educational videos for use with people’s own mobile devices. We will then ask first-time hearing aid users to try out the videos on their own devices. After 10-12 weeks, we will speak to each user individually. We will ask questions about how they got on with them, what worked and what made a difference to them.
Informed by the views of first-time hearing aid users, we plan to develop a larger study. This is to see whether our new educational videos, delivered through mobile devices, really make a difference to the lives of those affected by hearing loss. If they do, we plan to find out how and why.
The overall study goal is to improve hearing aid use by helping hearing aid users to self-manage their condition. This is to lessen the negative effects linked to hearing loss.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0117
Date of REC Opinion
28 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion