Social determinants of health associated with attitudes towards hearing loss and hearing aids in older adults fitted in a Latin American country: validation of the ALHQ questionnaire into Spanish

Abstract

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the association between certain social determinants of health (i.e. educational level, income, and social support) and attitudes towards hearing loss and hearing aids among older adults with hearing loss fitted in a Latin American country.

Design

Older adults were asked about their attitudes towards hearing loss and hearing aids, years of formal education, income, social support, perception of having a hearing disability, and social pressure when using the hearing aid. To do so, we adapted the Attitudes towards Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (S-ALHQ) into Spanish. All the questionnaires were conducted as structured interview.

Study sample

Two hundred fifty-two older hearing aids users were recruited from a public hospital in Chile.

Results

The S-ALHQ showed adequate validity, along with good reliability. The multivariate models showed that educational level and social support were the social determinants of health negatively associated with the attitudes. Aided hearing disability and social pressure to use hearing aids were the co-variables associated with S-ALHQ scores.

Conclusions

The study showed a significant relationship between specific social determinants of health and attitudes towards hearing loss and hearing aids. These attitudes should be considered when implementing rehabilitation programs for older adults with hearing loss.

Keywords:

• Aging
• hearing aids
• social determinants of health
• attitudes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study received funding from the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research CONICYT-FONDEF’s National Fund for Research and Development in Health (Fondo Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo en Salud, FONIS) in 2016 [project grant SA16I0290]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Derived data supporting the findings of this study is available from the corresponding author EFL on request.