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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Neuro-rehabilitation Approach for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Published on: January 25, 2016
Positive, Neutral, and Negative Connotations Associated with Social Representation of 'Hearing Loss' and 'Hearing
Vinaya Manchaiah1, Gretchen Stein2, Berth Danermark3
1Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX, USA.; Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.; Audiology India, Mysore, India.
Background And Objectives:
In our previous studies we explored the social representation of hearing loss and hearing aids. In this study we aimed at exploring if the positive, neutral and negative connotations associated with the social representation of 'hearing loss' and 'hearing aids' for the same categories vary across countries. In addition, we also looked at if there is an association between connotations and demographic variables.
Subjects And Methods:
A total of 404 individuals from four countries were asked to indicate the words and phrases that comes to mind when they think about 'hearing loss' and 'hearing aids'. They also indicated if the words and phrases they reported had positive, neutral or negative association, which were analyzed and reported in this paper.
Results:
There are considerable differences among the countries in terms of positive, neutral and negative associations report for each category in relation to hearing loss and hearing aids. However, there is limited connection between demographic variables and connotations reported in different countries.
Conclusions:
These results suggesting that the social representation about the phenomenon hearing loss and hearing aids are relatively stable within respondents of each country.
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