Audiological Characteristics and Associations With Psychological Inflexibility

The aim of this study was to describe psychological inflexibility for hearing difficulty for a sample of adults seeking hearing help and explore associations with demographic and audiological characteristics.

Archival data from 226 clinical electronic medical records at one university clinic were analyzed for this retrospective exploratory study. Audiometric test findings and results from the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Adult Hearing Loss (AAQ-AHL) were extracted for adult patients seen between June 1, 2022, and February 29, 2024.

The majority had a bilateral hearing loss (64%), 10% had a unilateral hearing loss, and 26% had bilateral pure-tone averages better than 25 dB HL. The AAQ-AHL total scores ranged from 0 to 51, and 8% had a high likelihood of distress from internal struggles related to their difficulty hearing. On individual items, up to one third of the sample expressed internal challenges. The AAQ-AHL total scores were moderately correlated with word recognition in noise, weakly correlated with better ear pure-tone average and word recognition in quiet, and were not correlated with age.

The current study adds to the previous research describing psychosocial challenges that can be experienced by people with hearing difficulties. Our research demonstrates that psychological inflexibility for hearing loss can be experienced by individuals of all ages and hearing status. Based on the present findings, we recommend that audiologists intentionally assess for psychosocial challenges for people seeking hearing help.