A randomised controlled clinical trial to assess the benefits of a telecare tool delivered prior to the initial hearing assessment

Abstract

Objective

To assess the benefits of the Ida Institute’s Why improve my hearing? Telecare Tool used before the initial hearing assessment appointment.

Design

A prospective, single-blind randomised clinical trial with two arms: (i) Why improve my hearing? Telecare Tool intervention, and (ii) standard care control.

Study sample

Adults with hearing loss were recruited from two Audiology Services within the United Kingdom’s publicly-funded National Health Service. Of 461 individuals assessed for eligibility, 57 were eligible to participate.

Results

Measure of Audiologic Rehabilitation Self-efficacy for Hearing Aids (primary outcome) scores did not differ between groups from baseline to post-assessment (Mean change [Δ]= −2.28; 95% confidence interval [CI]= −6.70, 2.15, p= .307) and 10-weeks follow-up (Mean Δ= −2.69; 95% CI= −9.52, 4.15, p = .434). However, Short Form Patient Activation Measure scores significantly improved in the intervention group compared to the control group from baseline to post-assessment (Mean Δ= −6.06, 95% CI= −11.31, −0.82, p = .024, ES= .61) and 10-weeks follow-up (Mean Δ= −9.87, 95% CI= −15.34, −4.40, p = .001, ES= −.97).

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that while a patient-centred telecare intervention completed before management decisions may not improve an individual’s self-efficacy to manage their hearing loss, it can lead to improvements in readiness.

Keywords:

• Adult aural rehabilitation
• self-efficacy
• randomised clinical trial
• readiness
• telecare intervention

Acknowledgments

This trial was prospectively registered in the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN11296341. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available online in Loughborough University’s Research Repository, https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/s/036fb36413a4bbfff084. The authors would like to thank the Ida Institute for funding this study. We would also like to thank Daljit Mehton for coordinating the study, Krysta Siliris for randomly allocating participants, Naomi Russell for training audiologists to use the WIMH Tool, and the patients and audiologists at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust who took part in this research.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

This research was co-funded by the Ida Institute and the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.