Journal of Phonetics & Audiology
Open Access
ISSN: 2471-9455
+44 1223 790975
ISSN: 2471-9455
+44 1223 790975
Objective: The aim was to explore patients’ accounts with regard to their experience of taking part in a pilot study evaluating the feasibility of conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT) on the effect of motivational interviewing (MI) on hearing-aid use.
Design: This was a qualitative sub-study embedded in a pilot RCT in NHS in which participants who reported using their hearing aid(s) less than four hours per day were randomised to MI combined with audiology standard care (MISC) (n=20), and standard care alone (SC) (n=17).
A constructivist approach informed by grounded theory was used. 34/37 patients who took part in the pilot RCT underwent in-depth interviews one-month after the interventions. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed thematically.
Results: Five themes emerged in relation to the participants’ perspectives about the key components of the research programme which influenced their hearing aid use. The themes comprise: (1) additional support, (2) clinician effect, (3) commitment to research, (4) research process, and (5) feeling better about self. Most people highlighted a combination of the themes related to the target interventions provided as well as the themes related to the research participation effect in general.
Conclusions: The provision of hearing aids in the NHS may benefit from adopting a more compassionate patientclinician relationship, additional patient education, and post-hearing-aid-fitting support. These were among the main themes which seemed to have helped people to improve their hearing-aid use.
Finally, this study suggests that the general research participation effect seems to have influenced the levels of hearing-aid use in both groups. Strategies to minimize the research participation effect need to be considered in the design of the future full-scale trials.