Patient-centred hearing care in Malaysia: what do audiologists prefer and to what extent is it implemented in practice?

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The preferences and practices of audiologists in Malaysia towards patient-centred care (PCC) in audiological management of adult patients was investigated using a sequential mixed-method study design.

Method: In Phase 1, the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale questionnaire (PPOS) investigated audiologists’ preferred extent of control and authority over adult patients in audiological management. In Phase 2, individual semi-structured interviews explored the nature of patient-centred hearing care. A total of 111 audiologists (mean age = 29.77 years, SD = 4.34) were involved in Phase 1; and eight audiologists (mean age = 28.9 years, SD = 3.76) were involved in Phase 2.

Results: The overall PPOS score (M = 3.95, SD = 0.10) indicated that the audiologists preferred patient-centred audiological management for their adult patients. However, further analysis revealed that audiologists preferred to lead discussions and be in control of appointment sessions. Findings from the interviews revealed the focus of audiological management was on addressing patients’ biomedical needs, with hearing aids being the only rehabilitation option offered. Furthermore, while the audiologists encouraged patients’ families to be involved in audiological management, the families were mainly given a passive role in the patients’ rehabilitation.

Conclusion: In general, despite audiologists in Malaysia having positive attitudes towards PCC in audiological management, their practice was typically clinician-centred and biomedically focused.

KEYWORDS:

• Adults
• attitudes of audiologists
• audiological management
• decision-making
• hearing impairment
• patient-centred care
• PPOS

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the audiologists who participated in our study. A poster presentation of the preliminary results in Phase 1 was presented at the 33rd World Congress of Audiology, September 18–21, 2016 (Ali, A., Hickson, L., & Meyer, C., 2016).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.