ABSTRACT
Objective: Successful application of hybrid tele-health may increase the scope of audiological rehabilitative services for hearing aid (HA) users, especially in low-resourced contexts. The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a hybrid tele-rehabilitation auditory training (AT) program on South African HA users.
Design: Convergent mixed methods design with a feasibility approach were utilized. An online AT program was used to determine: 1) compliance; 2) clinical benefit; 3) participant experience and 4) costs. Data collection was through questionnaires, in-booth speech assessments, online AT and face-to-face interviewing. Participants undertook online AT over four weeks. Pre-/post- online AT: the APHAB, QuickSIN, Entrance/Exit Questionnaires, Interviews and System Usability Scale were administered.
Study sample: Three female adult (35 - 55 years) state health sector HA users with bilateral disabling hearing loss participated.
Results: 1) High compliance rate (84.82%) with 3 hours 25 minutes total clinician contact time, 2) clinical benefit with improvement in listening skills and perceived HA benefit, 3) positive participant feedback, and 4) estimated cost $86.50 per participant.
Conclusions: The use of hybrid tele-health strategies may be feasible in low-resourced contexts to enable audiological rehabilitation services such as AT for HA users with minimal additional workload/time and costs on existing audiology services. However, further large-scale research is needed.
Key words: tele-audiology; low-resourced contexts; public health; auditory training; hybrid
(1) Email address: khtnuh001@myuct.ac.za
<mailto:khtnuh001@myuct.ac.za> (Nuha Khatib)
(2) 3rd May