Collaborators: Kira Birditt (PI), Helen Levy (Co-I), Gregory Mannarelli II (Co-I), Michael McKee (Co-I), Emily Mower Provost (Co-I)
Project Summary:
Hearing loss is a leading source of disability with 15% of U.S. adults (37.5 million people) suffering from hearing loss which predicts increased depression, social isolation, loneliness, increased risk of falls, cognitive decline, and dementia. Hearing aids are an effective treatment associated with improved quality of life, less loneliness, better relationship quality, and reductions in cognitive decline. Yet only 25% of adults with hearing loss have ever used hearing aids and these patterns are worse among older adults. Up to 65% of those 71 and older have hearing loss and less than a third report using hearing aids. The lack of insurance coverage and the high cost contribute to lack of hearing aid ownership, but hearing aid ownership is low even among individuals with hearing aid coverage. Many individuals who own hearing aids use them sporadically or not at all. There is an urgent need to understand the predictors of hearing aid use in daily life among individuals who own hearing aids. The scientific premise of this study is that social ties are key to both use and benefits of hearing aids. This project is guided by our newly developed Hearing Aid Use in a Social Context Framework, which suggests that individuals will wear their hearing aids more frequently when they have larger social networks and their social partners use positive rather than punitive social control efforts. Further, we predict that verbal communication when wearing hearing aids will be more cognitively complex, involve greater comprehension, and greater positive emotion all of which will lead to better social ties over time. The purpose of the proposed NIH stage 0 (i.e., basic science observational research) longitudinal study is to understand links between social networks, daily interpersonal processes (i.e., daily social interactions), and daily hearing aid use among older adults experiencing hearing loss who own hearing aids. We aim to enroll 300 older adults (65+) with bilateral moderate, moderate-severe, or severe age-related hearing loss (from 1000 to 4000 Hz in at least some of their audiogram) who obtained prescribed hearing aids in the last 3 to 6 months. The design includes a baseline interview regarding social networks, a 7-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study with mobile phone surveys every three hours regarding hearing aid use and social interactions, and a mobile app that records daily verbal communication (coded for complexity, comprehension, and emotion), along with12 subsequent monthly surveys regarding hearing aid use and relationships This study will address three aims: 1. Identify implications of social networks and daily social interactions for the frequency of hearing aid use in daily life. 2. Examine effects of hearing aid use in daily life for conversation. 3. Assess the consequences of hearing aid use reported in daily life and daily conversation experiences for social ties over time. Understanding how social ties predict hearing aid use in daily life and the long-term implications of daily hearing aid use for social ties will lead to actionable recommendations for interventions aimed at improving hearing aid use among older adults.