Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, School of Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Am J Audiol. 2022 Dec 5;31(4):1247-1259. doi: 10.1044/2022_AJA-22-00054. Epub 2022 Nov 21.
The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of audiologists to provide input into development of a smartphone application (app) to document the real-life listening difficulties and the listening environment of hearing aid candidates and users.
Two focus groups were conducted. Facilitators utilized a topic guide to generate participants' input and perspectives. The focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were then qualitatively analyzed using content analysis.
The study samples were 10 audiologists (seven females) with 2- to 10-plus years of hearing aid fitting experience.
Three main categories were identified: (a) The mobile device app could provide meaningful information to help audiologists to counsel their clients, (b) the app could give clients an insight into their hearing difficulties, and (c) the app could help clients to self-manage their hearing condition.
These findings suggest that audiologists may better understand their clients' real-life listening difficulties through the use of a mobile device app; however, further research is required to harness the benefits of such an app.
本研究旨在探讨听力学家的观点，为开发一款智能手机应用程序（app）提供意见，以记录助听器候选人和使用者的实际听力困难和听力环境。
进行了两次焦点小组讨论。主持人利用主题指南来生成参与者的意见和观点。对焦点小组进行了录音，并逐字记录下来。然后使用内容分析对转录本进行定性分析。
该研究的样本是 10 名听力学家（7 名女性），他们有 2 至 10 年以上的助听器验配经验。
确定了三个主要类别：（a）移动设备应用程序可以提供有意义的信息，帮助听力学家为其客户提供咨询，（b）该应用程序可以让客户深入了解自己的听力困难，（c）该应用程序可以帮助客户自我管理听力状况。
这些发现表明，听力学家可以通过使用移动设备应用程序更好地了解客户的实际听力困难；但是，需要进一步研究以利用此类应用程序的优势。
