Exploring the relationship between technology use, hearing help-seeking, and hearing aid outcomes in older adults

The objective of this study was to explore technology use and its relationship to help-seeking for hearing impairment (HI) and success with hearing aids among older adults. Previous research had suggested a link between higher levels of technology use and hearing aid success.

General technology use was evaluated using a purposefully developed 25-item questionnaire. Twelve items related to everyday technology use (e.g. DVD player) and 13 related to advanced technology use (e.g. Bluetooth).

Four groups of older adults with HI participated in the study: (1) non-consulters (n=49), (2) consulters (n=62), (3) unsuccessful hearing aid owners (n=61), and (4) successful hearing aid owners (n=79).

Preliminary analyses revealed a main effect in the use of everyday and advanced technology across the four participant groups. However, it was found that age and living arrangements accounted for most of the variance in reported everyday technology use (p=.030; p=.029, respectively) and age and gender accounted for the variance in reported advanced technology use (p<.001; p=.040, respectively). For everyday technology, an increase in age and living alone were associated with decreased technology use and for advanced technology use, age and female gender were associated with decreased technology use.

Although we hypothesized that technology use would be less amongst non-consulters and unsuccessful hearing aid owners, our findings did not support this prediction. Technology use did not vary by group membership once the covariates of age, gender, and living arrangements were accounted for.