Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2022 Jan 7;10(1):e27809. doi: 10.2196/27809.
Despite the increasing prevalence of hearing loss, the cost and psychological barriers to the use of hearing aids may prevent their use in individuals with hearing loss. Patients with hearing loss can benefit from smartphone-based hearing aid apps (SHAAs), which are smartphone apps that use a mobile device as a sound amplifier.
The aim of this study is to determine how ear, nose, and throat outpatients perceive SHAAs, analyze the factors that affect their perceptions, and estimate the costs of an annual subscription to an app through a self-administered questionnaire survey of smartphone users and hearing specialists.
This study used a cross-sectional, multicenter survey of both ear, nose, and throat outpatients and hearing specialists. The questionnaire was designed to collect personal information about the respondents and their responses to 18 questions concerning SHAAs in five domains: knowledge, needs, cost, expectations, and information. Perception questions were rated on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Questions about the expected cost of SHAAs were included in the questionnaire distributed to hearing experts.
Among the 219 smartphone users and 42 hearing specialists, only 8 (3.7%) respondents recognized SHAAs, whereas 18% (47/261) of respondents reported considering the use of an assistive device to improve their hearing capacity. The average perception score was 2.81 (SD 1.22). Among the factors that shaped perceptions of SHAAs, the needs category received the lowest scores (2.02, SD 1.42), whereas the cost category received the highest scores (3.29, SD 1.14). Age was correlated with the information domain (P<.001), and an increased level of hearing impairment resulted in significantly higher points in the needs category (P<.001). Patients expected the cost of an annual app subscription to an SHAA to be approximately US $86, and the predicted cost was associated with economic status (P=.02) and was higher than the prices expected by hearing specialists (P<.001).
Outpatients expected SHAAs to cost more than hearing specialists. However, the perception of the SHAA was relatively low. In this regard, enhanced awareness is required to popularize SHAAs.
尽管听力损失的患病率不断增加，但助听设备的成本和心理障碍可能会阻碍听力损失患者使用。智能手机助听应用程序（SHAAs）可以为听力损失患者带来益处，它是一种利用移动设备作为声音放大器的智能手机应用程序。
本研究旨在确定耳鼻喉科门诊患者如何感知 SHAAs，分析影响他们感知的因素，并通过对智能手机用户和听力专家进行自我管理问卷调查来估算应用程序年费的成本。
本研究采用智能手机用户和听力专家的耳鼻喉科门诊患者的横断面、多中心调查。调查问卷旨在收集受访者的个人信息，以及他们对五个领域的 18 个关于 SHAAs 的问题的回答：知识、需求、成本、期望和信息。感知问题的评分范围为 1（强烈不同意）至 5（强烈同意）。关于 SHAAs 预期成本的问题包含在分发给听力专家的问卷中。
在 219 名智能手机用户和 42 名听力专家中，仅有 8 名（3.7%）受访者认识 SHAAs，而 18%（47/261）的受访者表示考虑使用辅助设备来提高听力能力。平均感知得分为 2.81（SD 1.22）。在影响 SHAAs 感知的因素中，需求类别得分最低（2.02，SD 1.42），而成本类别得分最高（3.29，SD 1.14）。年龄与信息领域相关（P<.001），听力损伤程度越高，需求类别得分越高（P<.001）。患者期望 SHAAs 每年的应用程序订阅费用约为 86 美元，预测成本与经济状况相关（P=.02），高于听力专家的预期价格（P<.001）。
门诊患者期望 SHAAs 的费用高于听力专家。然而，对 SHAAs 的感知相对较低。在这方面，需要提高认识以推广 SHAAs。
