Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Feb 8, 2021
Date Accepted: Nov 24, 2021
Knowledge and Expectations of Hearing Aid Applications: A Cross-sectional Survey of Smartphone Users and Hearing Professionals
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite the increasing prevalence of hearing loss, the cost and psychological barriers to use of hearing aids may prevent their use in individuals with hearing loss. Patients with hearing loss can benefit from smartphone-based hearing aid applications (SHAAs), which are smartphone applications that use a mobile device as a sound amplifier.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to determine how ear, nose and throat (ENT) outpatients perceived SHAAs, analyze the factors that affected their perceptions, and estimate the costs of an annual subscription to an application through a self-administered questionnaire survey of smartphone users and hearing specialists.
Methods:
The study employed a cross-sectional, multicenter survey of both ENT outpatients and hearing specialists. The questionnaire was designed to collect personal information about the respondents as well as their responses to 18 questions concerning SHAAs in 5 domains: knowledge, needs, cost, expectations, and information. Perception questions were rated on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Questions about the expected cost of SHAAs were included in the questionnaire distributed to hearing experts.
Results:
Among 219 smartphone users and 42 hearing specialists, only eight respondents (3.7%) recognized SHAAs, while 47 of 261 respondents (21.5%) reported considering using an assistive device to improve their hearing capacities. The average perception score was 2.81 (95% confidence interval, CI, 2.65-2.97). Among factors that shaped perceptions of SHAAs, the needs category received the lowest scores (2.02; 95% CI, 1.83-2.20), whereas the cost category received the highest scores (3.29; 95% CI, 3.14-3.44). Age was correlated with the information domain (P < .001), and an increased level of hearing impairment resulted in significantly higher points in the needs category (P < .001). Patients expected the cost of an annual application subscription to an SHAA to be about 86 United States dollar(USD), and the predicted cost was associated with economic status (P = .021) and was higher than the prices expected by hearing specialists (P < .001).
Conclusions:
Outpatients expected SHAAs to cost more than hearing specialists. However, SHAA perception was relatively low. In this regard, enhanced awareness of SHAAs is required to popularize SHAAs.
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