mHealth Technologies for Hearing Aid Users

Research question: Is it feasible for first-time hearing aid users to use a personalised educational intervention delivered through mobile technologies in their everyday life?

Objectives: To establish the feasibility of the intervention by evaluating delivery, accessibility, usability, acceptability, and adherence in first-time hearing aid users. To establish suitable outcome measures to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in a future randomised controlled trial.

Study Design: Single centre, feasibility.

Naïve first-time hearing aid users will try out the intervention away from the laboratory. Following 10-12 weeks of independent use, the investigators will assess how the participants used the intervention using a mixed-methods approach across two parallel stages:

Stage 1. The investigators will assess the feasibility of the intervention in first-time hearing aid users, who will be invited to take part in semi-structured interviews. Using the COM-B model (Michie et al., 2014) as the framework underpinning the interviews, delivery, accessibility, usability, acceptability, and adherence of the intervention will be evaluated. Transcribed audio-recordings will be analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). A total of 15 participants is typically sufficient to achieve data saturation (the point in data collection when no new information emerges) using this qualitative methodology (Guest et al., 2006). To allow for 18% attrition (Ferguson et al., 2016), 18 patients will be. To prevent potential confounding of the interviews, participants will not be required to complete quantitative outcome measures used in stage 2.

Stage 2. The investigators will assess which outcome measures are suitable to assess the intervention in terms how well it supported users to make changes to their behaviour. First-time hearing aid users will complete outcome measures by interview. Outcomes were selected based on the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (WHO, 2001), which provides a theoretical framework upon which to measure the success of amplification using hearing aids. At least 50 participants are required to allow for sufficient between- and within-subject variability in order to calculate important change scores for each outcome measure. To allow for 18% attrition 59 patients will be recruited.

Inclusion criteria

• First-time hearing aid users (or if previous users, but not having worn hearing aids for more than 3 years)
• Familiar with mobile technologies (e.g. owns a smartphone or tablet device, or uses one regularly)
• English as a first spoken language or a good understanding of English. It is important that participants can understand the content of the resources and work with the interactive elements, as well as be able to answer outcome questionnaires, to ensure valid data are collected.

Exclusion criteria

• Unable to complete the questionnaires without assistance due to age-related problems (e.g. cognitive decline or dementia), to ensure valid data are collected.