Abstract
Objective
This study aimed to explore the main reasons for hearing aid uptake from a user perspective and recommendations to others with hearing difficulties.
Design
A cross-sectional survey design was used. Responses to a single open-ended question were analysed using qualitative content analysis.
Study sample
Participants (n = 642) included adult hearing aid users sampled from the Hearing Tracker website community and Lexie Hearing user databases in the United States.
Results
Participants had a mean age of 65.4 years (13.7 SD) and included 61.8% males, 37.7% females, 0.3% non-binary, and 0.2% preferred not to say. Reasons for hearing aid uptake were categorised into three domains (personal impact, social difficulties, and auditory difficulties), containing 11 main categories and 48 sub-categories. User recommendations to others with hearing difficulties constituted eight main categories (timely help, trial period, support, affordability, technology, direct-to-consumer hearing aids, adjustments, and advocacy) and 32 sub-categories.
Conclusions
The decision to take up hearing aids included intrinsic factors like readiness to change and extrinsic factors such as the availability of finances. The most frequent recommendation to others was not to delay seeking hearing help and to get hearing aids. Our findings may support strategies to facilitate behaviour change for improved hearing aid uptake.
Disclosure statement
The relationship between author De Wet Swanepoel and the hearX Group, which owns Lexie Hearing, includes equity, consulting, and potential royalties. The other authors have declared that no other competing financial or nonfinancial interests existed at the time of publication.
Data availability statement
The data analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.