Health care providers' and peers' impressions of elderly hearing aid wearers

This study investigated whether (1) health care providers (nursing home and hospital staff personnel) and elderly peer observers formed negative initial impressions of elderly persons shown in three conditions of hearing aid use; (2) whether the groups differed in their ratings; and (3) whether size of the aid affected their ratings. Stimuli were 36 photographic slides, three each of six male and six female elderly persons shown wearing a body hearing aid, a postauricular aid, and no aid. Observers rated the 12 stimulus subjects on a 16-item semantic differential. Factor analysis of the ratings resulted in three factors: achievement, personality, and appearance. Analysis of variance revealed that no "hearing aid effect" was present, since none of the observer groups rated the stimulus subjects lower on any of the three factors when they were shown wearing hearing aids. Further, the groups did not differ in their observations, and size of the hearing aid did not affect their ratings. The findings differ somewhat from earlier studies and have implications for counseling potential hearing aid users.