Prioritizing Hearing: Patient and Provider Perspectives on Rural Hearing Health Care and Patient Navigation.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Audiology
• Rural Health

Background:

• Hearing loss is a prevalent chronic condition, disproportionately affecting rural adults.
• Rural populations encounter systemic barriers to accessing hearing health care (HHC).

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore hearing loss experiences in rural adults.
• To identify factors influencing HHC access for this population.
• To assess the acceptability of a patient navigation program for rural HHC.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative needs assessment using semistructured interviews.
• Involved 21 primary care patients with hearing loss and 11 healthcare personnel in rural Kentucky.
• Thematic analysis identified predisposing, enabling, and need factors affecting HHC access.

Main Results:

• Predisposing factors include noise exposure concerns and attitudes towards HHC.
• Enabling factors involve connectivity, resource availability, transportation, and cost.
• Need factors relate to the experience of hearing loss; patient navigators (PNs) can enhance access through support and resource connection.

Conclusions:

• Findings will inform the development of a patient navigation intervention for rural HHC.
• Patient navigators will be trained to address patient needs and overcome access barriers.