Willingness to consider and to pay for a variety of telehealth services amongst adult hearing clinic clients

Abstract

Objective

To examine willingness to consider and to pay for various one-to-one telehealth appointments and online group training/information sessions amongst hearing service clients interested in future telehealth.

Design

Online survey exploring telehealth usage and attitudes more broadly.

Study sample

One-hundred-and-sixty-eight (39.8%) of the 422 survey respondents who answered the question were interested in future hearing-related telehealth. Data were analysed for the 148 providing demographic information.

Results

At least some respondents were interested in each type of one-to-one appointment (∼30–60% for most types) and group training/information session (∼30–50% for most types). Some inconsistent associations were found between willingness to consider individual appointment types and a metropolitan location, younger age, and female gender. Associations with having a hearing device fitted may have been influenced by the different needs of those without devices. Younger respondents were more likely to consider a wide range of appointment types. Being younger was associated with an interest in 7 of the 9 different group session types. The acceptable price range was AUD$30–$86 (USD$22–$62) (n = 129) for one-to-one appointments and AUD$47–$103 (USD$34–$73) for three group sessions (n = 99).

Conclusions

Despite additional communication needs, hearing service clients have a strong interest in a range of individual and group telehealth services.

Keywords:

• Hearing impairment
• telehealth
• teleaudiology
• rehabilitation
• group rehabilitation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Ear Science Implant Clinic and the Lions Hearing Clinic for access to client databases, and the clients for their time completing the survey.

Disclosure statement

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