Determinants of regular use of hearing aids among older adults in Tehran (Iran)

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to examine the determinants of the regular use of hearing aids among older adults.The data for this cross-sectional study was obtained from a study titled ‘Development and evaluation of a Structural Equation Model for Identifying Factors Associated with the Actual Use of Hearing Aids among Older Adults with Hearing Loss in Tehran.’ Briefly, 300 hearing users aged 60 and older residing in Tehran were selected using stratified random sampling and administered the study’s self-assessment instruments. SPSS (v. 24) software was used to analyze data using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, chi-square, and binary logistic regression analysis.The mean age of the participants was 71.38 (SD=8). Of the study population, 50.7% were female, and 49.3% were male. In addition, 63.3% of the participants used hearing aids regularly. The multiple logistic regression model controlling the simultaneous effect of the variables indicated that the regular use of hearing aids was influenced by a variety of factors, including education level, hearing aid satisfaction, self-reported hearing impairment, perceived social support, extroversion personality trait, and emotional stability (P≤.05).The main findings of the present study can aid hearing healthcare providers in designing effective interventions and strategies and promoting the regular use of hearing aids among older adults by improving their understanding of the associated factors.

Acknowledgment

The data source for this article was extracted from the Ph.D. thesis of Abdolhakim Jorbonyan, a student in the Department of Gerontology at the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. We are extremely grateful to the elderly and audiology clinics for cooperating with this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.