Older Adults and Hearing Help-Seeking Behaviors
Publication: American Journal of Audiology
Volume 21, Number 2
Pages 331-337
Abstract
Purpose
To review the current literature on help seeking for hearing health care among older adults.
Method
The authors conducted a literature review regarding help seeking for hearing-related communication difficulties as well as for other chronic medical conditions.
Results
Untreated hearing loss can lead to numerous negative secondary consequences; uptake and use of hearing aids remain low, despite the fact that hearing aids provide an effective treatment option for older adults with hearing loss. The authors describe models relevant to understanding the help-seeking and decision-making behaviors of older adults with hearing loss and discuss recommendations for future research.
Conclusion
Because of the considerable overlap in factors associated with help-seeking behaviors across chronic medical conditions and because help-seeking behaviors are complex, help seeking should be examined within the framework of a multifactorial model, such as the health belief model or the transtheoretical stages of change model.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (1997). Guidelines for audiologic screening [Guidelines]. Available from www.asha.org/docs/html/GL1997-00199.html
Arlinger, S. (2003). Negative consequences of uncorrected hearing loss—a review. International Journal of Audiology, 42(Suppl. 2), 2S17–2S20.
Cameron, L., Leventhal, E., & Leventhal, H. (1993). Symptom representations and affect as determinants of care seeking in a community-dwelling, adult sample population. Health Psychology, 12, 171–179.
Carson, A. (2005). “What brings you here today?” The role of self-assessment in help-seeking for age-related hearing loss. Journal of Aging Studies, 19, 185–200.
Cherubini, A., Corsonello, A., & Lattanzio, F. (2012). Underprescription of beneficial medicines in older people: Causes, consequences and prevention. Drugs & Aging, 29, 463–475. doi:10.2165/11631750-000000000-00000
Clark, J. (2010). Geometry of patient motivation: Circles, lines and boxes. Audiology Today, 22, 32–40.
Collins, J. G. (1997). Prevalence of selected chronic conditions: United States, 1990–1992. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital and Health Statistics, 10(Serial No. 194)
Cornally, N., & McCarthy, G. (2011a). Chronic pain: The help-seeking behavior, attitudes, and beliefs of older adults living in the community. Pain Management Nursing, 12, 206–217.
Cornally, N., & McCarthy, G. (2011b). Help-seeking behaviour for the treatment of chronic pain. British Journal of Community Nursing, 16, 90–98.
Cox, R., Alexander, G., & Gray, G. (2005). Who wants a hearing aid? Personality profiles of hearing aid seekers. Ear and Hearing, 26, 12–26.
Dalton, D., Cruickshanks, K., Klein, B., Klein, R., Wiley, T., & Nondahl, D. (2003). The impact of hearing loss on quality of life in older adults. The Gerontologist, 43, 661–668.
Donahue, A., Dubno, J., & Beck, L. (2010). Guest editorial: Accessible and affordable hearing health care for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. Ear and Hearing, 31, 2–6.
Duijvestijn, J., Anteunis, L., Hoek, C., Van Den Brink, R., Chenault, M., & Manni, J. (2003). Help-seeking behaviour of hearing-impaired persons aged & or = 55 years; effect of complaints, significant others and hearing aid image. Acta Oto-laryngologica, 123, 846–850.
Fischer, M., Cruickshanks, K., Wiley, T., Klein, B., Klein, R., & Tweed, T. (2011). Determinants of hearing aid acquisition in older adults. American Journal of Public Health, 101, 1449–1455.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Forbes, W., Sturgeon, D., Hayward, L., Agwani, N., & Dobbins, P. (1992). Hearing impairment in the elderly and the use of assistive listening devices: Prevalences, associations, and evaluations. International Journal of Technology & Aging, 5, 39–61.
Gordon-Salant, S., Lantz, J., & Fitzgibbons, P. (1994). Age effects on measures of hearing disability. Ear and Hearing, 15, 262–265.
Gresset, J., & Baumgarten, M. (2002). Prevalence of visual impairment and utilization of rehabilitation services in the visually impaired elderly population of Quebec. Optometry and Vision Science, 79, 416–423.
Gülpinar, O., Haliloglu, A., Abdulmajed, M., Boga, M., & Yaman, O. (2011). Help-seeking interval in erectile dysfunction: Analysis of attitudes, beliefs and factors affecting treatment-seeking interval in Turkish men with previously-untreated erectile dysfunction. Journal of Andrology, 33, 624–628.
Humphrey, C., Herbst, K., & Faurqi, S. (1981). Some characteristics of the hearing-impaired elderly who do not present themselves for rehabilitation. British Journal of Audiology, 15, 25–30.
Ida Institute. (2011). Motivation tools. Retrieved from http://idainstitute.com/tool_room/patient_motivation/
Knudsen, L., Oberg, M., Nielsen, C., Naylor, G., & Kramer, S. (2010). Factors influencing help seeking, hearing aid uptake, hearing aid use and satisfaction with hearing aids: A review of the literature. Trends in Amplification, 14, 127–154.
Kochkin, S. (2007). MarkeTrak VII: Obstacles to adult non-user adoption of hearing aids. Hearing Journal, 60, 24–50.
Kochkin, S. (2009). MarkeTrak VIII: 25-year trends in the hearing health market. Hearing Review, 16, 12–31.
Laplante-Lévesque, A., Hickson, L., & Worrall, L. (2012). What makes adults with hearing impairment take up hearing aids or communication programs and achieve successful outcomes? Ear and Hearing, 33, 79–93.
Lin, F., Metter, E., O’Brien, R., Resnick, S., Zonderman, A., & Ferrucci, L. (2011). Hearing loss and incident dementia. Archives of Neurology, 68, 214–220. doi:10.1001/archneurol.2010.362
Mahoney, C. F., Stephens, S., & Cadge, B. (1996). Who prompts patients to consult about hearing loss? British Journal of Audiology, 30, 153–158.
McConnaughty, E., Prochaska, J., & Velicier, W. (1983). Stages of change in psychotherapy: Measurement and sample profiles. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 20, 368–375.
Meyer, C., & Hickson, L. (2012). What factors influence help-seeking for hearing impairment and hearing aid adoption in older adults? International Journal of Audiology, 51, 66–74.
Meyer, C., Hickson, L., Khan, A., Hartley, D., Dillon, H., & Seymour, J. (2011). Investigation of the actions taken by adults who failed a telephone-based hearing screen. Ear and Hearing, 32, 720–731.
Mukadam, N., Cooper, C., & Livingston, G. (2011). A systematic review of ethnicity and pathways to care in dementia. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26, 12–20.
NIDCD Working Group. (2009). NIDCD working group on accessible and affordable hearing health care for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. Retrieved from www.nidcd.nih.gov/funding/programs/09HHC/Pages/summary.aspx
Prochaska, J., & Velicer, W. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12, 38–48.
Rosenstock, I. (1966). Why people use health services. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 44(Suppl. 3), 94–127.
Rosenstock, I., Strecher, V. J., & Becker, M. H. (1988). Social learning theory and the health belief model. Health Education & Behavior, 15, 175–183.
Samuelsson, E., Victor, A., & Tibblin, G. (1997). A population study of urinary incontinence and nocturia among women aged 20–59 years. Prevalence, well-being and wish for treatment. Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 76, 74–80.
Shaw, C. (2001). A review of the psychosocial predictors of help-seeking behaviour and impact on quality of life in people with urinary incontinence. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 10, 15–24.
Shefer, G., Rose, D., Nellums, L., Thornicroft, G., Henderson, C., & Evans-Lacko, S. (2012). “Our community is the worst”: The influence of cultural beliefs on stigma, relationships with family and help-seeking in three ethnic communities in London. International Journal of Social Psychiatry [E-pub ahead of print]
Southall, K., Gagné, J., & Jennings, M. (2010). Stigma: A negative and a positive influence on help-seeking for adults with acquired hearing loss. International Journal of Audiology, 49, 804–814.
Strawbridge, W., Wallhagen, M., Shema, S., & Kaplan, G. (2000). Negative consequences of hearing impairment in old age: A longitudinal analysis. The Gerontologist, 40, 320–326.
Swan, I., & Gatehouse, S. (1990). Factors influencing consultation for management of hearing disability. British Journal of Audiology, 34, 155–160.
Tucker, J., Vuchinich, R., & Rippens, P. (2004). A factor analytic study of influences on patterns of help-seeking among treated and untreated alcohol dependent persons. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 26, 237–242.
Van den Brink, R., Wit, H., Kempen, G., & Van Heuvelen, M. (1996). Attitude and help-seeking for hearing impairment. British Journal of Audiology, 30, 313–324.
Wallhagen, M. (2009). The stigma of hearing loss. The Gerontologist, 50, 66–75.
Weinstein, B. E. (1986). Validity of a screening protocol for identifying elderly people with hearing problems. ASHA, 28, 41–45.
Westerhof, G., Maessen, M., de Bruijn, R., & Smets, B. (2008). Intentions to seek (preventive) psychological help among older adults: An application of the theory of planned behaviour. Aging and Mental Health, 12, 317–322.
Yueh, B., Collins, M., Souza, P., Boyko, E., Loovis, C., Heagerty, P., … Hedrick, S. C. (2010). Long-term effectiveness of screening for hearing loss: The Screening for Auditory Impairment–Which Hearing Assessment Test (SAI-WHAT) randomized trial. Journal of the American Geriatric Society, 58, 427–434.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
History
- Received: May 25, 2012
- Accepted: Jul 11, 2012
- Published in issue: Dec 1, 2012
Key Words
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Metrics
View all metricsCitations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.
For more information or tips please see 'Downloading to a citation manager' in the Help menu.
Citing Literature
- Sara K. Mamo, Alyssa N. Krysko, Katherine Garrity, Margaret I. Wallhagen, Single-Item Hearing Screening in a Group Care Health Clinic for Older Adults, Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 10.1016/j.jamda.2024.105223, 25, 11, (105223), (2024).
- Mary Dioise Ramos, The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and Health-Seeking Behavior, Handbook of Concepts in Health, Health Behavior and Environmental Health, 10.1007/978-981-97-0821-5_27-1, (1-26), (2024).
- Giulia Angonese, Mareike Buhl, Inka Kuhlmann, Birger Kollmeier, Andrea Hildebrandt, Prediction of Hearing Help Seeking to Design a Recommendation Module of an mHealth Hearing App: Intensive Longitudinal Study of Feature Importance Assessment, JMIR Human Factors, 10.2196/52310, 11, (e52310), (2024).
- Thobekile K. Mtimkulu, Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Help-seeking journey to accessing audiology services in a peri-urban community in South Africa, South African Journal of Communication Disorders, 10.4102/sajcd.v71i1.1002, 71, 1, (2024).
- Abdolhakim Jorbonyan, Yadollah Abolfathi Momtaz, Mahshid Foroughan, Saeideh Mehrkian, Determinants of Continuance Intention to Use Hearing Aids among Older Adults in Tehran (Iran), Healthcare, 10.3390/healthcare12040487, 12, 4, (487), (2024).
- Thobekile Kutloano Mtimkulu, Katijah Khoza-Shangase, Luisa Petrocchi-Bartal, Barriers and facilitators influencing hearing help-seeking behaviors for adults in a peri-urban community in South Africa: a preventive audiology study, Frontiers in Public Health, 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1095090, 11, (2023).
- Andreas Thulin, Kim Kähäri, Milijana Malmberg, The development and evaluation of an online hearing loss prevention program, Preventive Medicine Reports, 10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102298, 35, (102298), (2023).
- Karina C. De Sousa, Vinaya Manchaiah, David R. Moore, Marien A. Graham, De Wet Swanepoel, Effectiveness of an Over-the-Counter Self-fitting Hearing Aid Compared With an Audiologist-Fitted Hearing Aid, JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, 10.1001/jamaoto.2023.0376, 149, 6, (522), (2023).
- Lisette M. van Leeuwen, Thadé Goderie, Marieke F. van Wier, Birgit I. Lissenberg-Witte, Ulrike Lemke, Sophia E. Kramer, The Longitudinal Relationship Between Speech Recognition in Noise, Need for Recovery After Work, Job Demand, and Job Control Over a Period of 5 Years, Ear & Hearing, 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001127, 43, 2, (659-668), (2022).
- Robert L. Folmer, Gabrielle H. Saunders, Jay J. Vachhani, Robert H. Margolis, George Saly, Bevan Yueh, Rachel A. McArdle, Lawrence L. Feth, Christina M. Roup, M. Patrick Feeney, Hearing Health Care Utilization Following Automated Hearing Screening, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 10.1055/s-0041-1723041, 32, 04, (235-245), (2021).
View Options
Sign In Options
ASHA member? If so, log in with your ASHA website credentials for full access.
Member Login