INSPIRES Hearing Health Trial - INnovative Psychological Intervention to REduce Stigma in Hearing Health Trial

Overview

Background: Reminding people they are moral adaptable human beings ("self-affirming") reduces the perceived stigma associated with wearing hearing aids and increases actual hearing aid use. The proposed study aims to reduce stigma in a representative sample of people aged over 60 from the general population who may or may not already be wearing hearing aids and improve multiple hearing health outcomes (e.g., attending screening, device use). Methods/Design: Double-blinded randomized controlled trial in which a representative sample of people aged over 60 from the general population will be asked to complete surveys about hearing stigma, hearing loss and multiple hearing health outcomes. Participants randomized to the control group will only complete the survey; participants in the intervention group will be asked to affirm their values. Six months later, all participants will complete the same survey to assess outcomes. Discussion: The proposed research will lead to a brief psychological intervention to reduce stigma in relation to hearing loss/aids.

According to self-affirmation theory, defensiveness arises because people are motivated to defend their global sense of self-worth, which in the present case is threatened by perceptions of hearing aids/loss. However, if a person's self-image can be bolstered (affirmed) in a domain that is important to them, thereby preserving self-integrity, the individual should be less likely to process the threatening (i.e., stigmatizing in the present context) information defensively. Accumulated empirical evidence demonstrates that affirming the self: (a) reduces public stigma, (b) reduces self-stigma, and (c) causes meaningful changes in behaviour. Following a pilot-feasibility trial showing that self-affirming caused significant reductions in first-time hearing aid users' anxieties about ageing and increased their hearing aid use by almost 2 hours/day.