Applying social psychological research to improve hearing rehabilitation outcomes for persons with hearing loss – Duplicated

Millions of Canadians experience hearing loss that impairs functioning and participation in everyday life, however, only a fraction of these individuals address this loss by adopting and using hearing aids. To address this gap, hearing aid research has traditionally focused on the biology of the ear to improve technical aspects of hearing aids as well as on individual factors related to hearing aid adoption (e.g., degree of hearing aid impairment). However, recently, research on hearing loss and rehabilitation has begun to recognize the relevance of considering social aspects, such as trust, social support, and stigma, in the adoption and of hearing aids. This project aims to investigate social psychological factors involved in hearing loss and hearing aid adoption and to provide clinicians with practical recommendations for improving healthcare quality services to patients with hearing loss. The partner organization will benefit from improved healthcare quality to support patients with hearing loss and to increase patients’ quality of life. In particular, better quality of healthcare services may lead more people with hearing impairment to adopt and consistently use hearing aids.

Faculty Supervisor:

Frank Russo

Student:

Maria Iankilevitch

Partner:

Unitron Hearing Ltd.

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

University:

Ryerson University

Program: