Innovative Design Labs Inc. (IDL) and its collaborators, proposes to create a cloud-based system which integrates advances and techniques from Health and Wellness Coaching (HWC) into the Hearing Aid (HA) fitting and trial process.
As of 2015, 28.8 million U.S. adults could benefit from using hearing aids and the prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly due to an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. However, only 28.5% of individuals who could benefit from a HA actually wears one. The non-use of hearing aids by people with hearing loss has many far-reaching implications for their physical health, mental health, and their social life. As the market moves towards a, direct-to-consumer distribution model following the 2017 FDA directive, more patients will be receiving therapy for hearing loss. While in traditional practice, an audiologist assists the patient with support adjusting to their new therapy, there is no person fulfilling that role in the direct-to-consumer model. Hypothesis: The investigators hypothesize that the integration of Health and Wellness Coaching, aided by cloud-based tools, into this process will increase patients' satisfaction and usage of hearing health products. Specific Aims: 1) Create patient/coach interaction protocol and training; 2) Develop a cloud-based Health Coaching Interface; 3) Evaluate system effectiveness through a clinical trial.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
34
An enhanced mobile application that allows for participation in health coaching features. Participants will be assigned to a health coach and will have coaching sessions scheduled.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
COSI Goal Achievement
The Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI) questionnaire tracks the goals and needs of the patient through their hearing aid fitting process. Items allow the patient to qualify their degree of change for each of their needs/goals as 1) Much Worse 2) Worse 3) No Difference 4) Better 5) Much Better. Total scores are an average of item scores and range from 1 to 5 with higher scores indicating more improvement.
Time frame: 3 months
Hours of Hearing Aid Use
Hearing aid usage information for both groups will be automatically logged on non-volatile memory inside of the hearing aid. It will record the amount of time in hours the user spent wearing their hearing aids. It is accessed and downloaded through the provided companion smartphone application.
Time frame: 3 months
Adherence to Program
Time frame: 3 months
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