Galvin Karyn, Tomlin Dani, Timmer Barbra H B, McNeice Zoe, Mount Nicole, Gray Kathleen, Short Camille E
Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Melbourne, Carlton, Australia.
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
JMIR Form Res. 2024 Jul 23;8:e47578. doi: 10.2196/47578.
By enabling individuals with hearing loss to collect their own hearing data in their personal real-world settings, there is scope to improve clinical care, empower consumers, and support shared clinical decision-making and problem-solving. Clinician support for this approach has been established in a separate study.
This study aims to explore, for consumers with hearing loss, their (1) experiences of listening difficulties, to identify the data an app could usefully collect; (2) preferences regarding the features of mobile apps in general; and (3) opinions on the potential value and desirable features of a yet-to-be designed app for documenting listening difficulties in real-world settings.
A total of 3 focus groups involved 27 adults who self-reported hearing loss. Most were fitted with hearing devices. A facilitator used a topic guide to generate discussion, which was video- and audio-recorded. Verbatim transcriptions were analyzed using inductive content analysis.
Consumers supported the concept of a mobile app that would facilitate the documenting of listening difficulties in real-world settings important to the individual. Consumers shared valuable insights about their listening difficulties, which will help determine the data that should be collected through an app designed to document these challenges. This information included early indicators of hearing loss (eg, mishearing, difficulty communicating in groups and on the phone, and speaking overly loudly) and prompts to seek hearing devices (eg, spousal pressure and the advice or example provided by others, and needing to rely on lipreading or to constantly request others to repeat themselves). It also included the well-known factors that influence listening difficulties (eg, reverberation, background noise, group conversations) and the impacts and consequences of their difficulties (eg, negative impacts on relationships and employment, social isolation and withdrawal, and negative emotions). Consumers desired a visual-based app that provided options for how data could be collected and how the user could enter data into an app, and which enabled data sharing with a clinician.
These findings provide directions for the future co-design and piloting of a prototype mobile app to provide data that are useful for increasing self-awareness of listening difficulties and can be shared with a clinician.
通过使听力损失患者能够在个人现实生活环境中收集自己的听力数据，有望改善临床护理、增强消费者能力，并支持共同的临床决策和问题解决。在另一项研究中已确立了临床医生对这种方法的支持。
本研究旨在探索听力损失患者的以下方面：（1）听力困难经历，以确定应用程序可有效收集的数据；（2）对一般移动应用程序功能的偏好；（3）对于一款尚未设计的用于记录现实生活中听力困难的应用程序的潜在价值和理想功能的看法。
共有3个焦点小组，涉及27名自我报告有听力损失的成年人。大多数人佩戴了听力设备。一名主持人使用主题指南引导讨论，并进行了视频和音频录制。使用归纳性内容分析法对逐字记录进行分析。
消费者支持开发一款移动应用程序的概念，该应用程序将有助于记录对个人而言重要的现实生活环境中的听力困难。消费者分享了有关其听力困难的宝贵见解，这将有助于确定应通过旨在记录这些挑战的应用程序收集的数据。这些信息包括听力损失的早期指标（例如，听错、在群体中和电话中沟通困难以及说话声音过大）以及寻求听力设备的诱因（例如，配偶的压力、他人提供的建议或例子，以及需要依靠唇读或不断要求他人重复）。还包括影响听力困难的众所周知的因素（例如，混响、背景噪音、群体对话）以及听力困难的影响和后果（例如，对人际关系和工作的负面影响、社交孤立和退缩以及负面情绪）。消费者希望有一款基于视觉的应用程序，该程序提供有关如何收集数据以及用户如何将数据输入应用程序的选项，并能够与临床医生共享数据。
这些发现为未来共同设计和试点一款原型移动应用程序提供了方向，该应用程序可提供有助于提高对听力困难的自我认知且可与临床医生共享的数据。
