Louise Hickson

The University of Queensland | UQ · School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

This preregistered systematic review examined the peer-reviewed scientific literature to determine the effect of hearing aids (HAs) on static and dynamic balance in adults with Hearing Impairment (HI). A search of the English language literature in seven academic databases identified 909 relevant articles published prior to July 2021. Ten articles...

Objective This study aimed to explore barriers to hearing aid adoption amongst older adults in mainland China. Design Semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Study sample The study included 12 older adults who had seen ENTs and had not adopted hearing aids. Results Three overarching themes...

Objective: There is mounting evidence for implementing family-centred care (FCC) in adult audiology services, however FCC is not typically observed in adult clinical practice. This study implemented an intervention to increase family member attendance and involvement within adult audiology appointments. Design: The study involved a mixed method...

Purpose: This study aimed to gather the views and experiences of clinicians and managers on early intervention audiology and speech-language pathology services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families of children with hearing loss. Method: This qualitative descriptive study involved 27 semistructured interviews with audiologists...

BackgroundA variety of outcome domains are currently measured for the assessment of hearing rehabilitation. To date, there is no consensus about which outcome domains should be measured, when they should be measured, and how they should be measured. In addition, most studies seeking to develop core outcome sets and measures for hearing rehabilitati...

Objective This study aimed to explore the experiences and perceptions of adults with hearing impairment and family members regarding the role of family in audiological rehabilitation. Design A qualitative descriptive methodology was used. Study Sample A total of 37 people participated, 24 older adults with hearing impairment and 13 family members...

Objectives: To seek the perspectives of key stakeholders regarding: (1) how eHealth could help meet the hearing and communication needs of adults with hearing impairment and their significant others; and (2) how helpful each aspect of eHealth would be to key stakeholders personally. Design: Group concept mapping, a mixed-methods participatory re...

Objective: To investigate whether the magnitude of the right-ear advantage (REA) for speech perception in noise decreased in aided conditions as compared with unaided conditions in older adults bilaterally fitted with hearing aids. A secondary aim was to determine the effect of audibility on the right- and left-ear processing for speech stimuli in...

Objective To establish the acceptability and feasibility of delivering the Active Communication Education (ACE) programme to increase quality of life through improving communication and hearing aid use in the UK National Health Service. Design Randomised controlled, open feasibility trial with embedded economic and process evaluations. Setting Au...

This review synthesized recent qualitative research evidence on language accessibility in early intervention allied health services in the context of providing family-centred care (FCC) for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families of children with chronic health conditions. A search was conducted using nine bibliographic databases, and...

Objective Although the availability of mobile device applications (apps) to support people with hearing impairment is rapidly increasing, there are few reports of the use of such apps by the target population. The aim of this paper is to describe research that has applied apps at various stages of the adult rehabilitation journey. Design A summary...

Objective To explore the perceived benefit and likely implementation of approaches used by audiologists to address their adult clients’ psychosocial needs related to hearing loss. Design Adults with hearing loss and audiologists completed separate, but related, surveys to rate their perceived benefit and also their likely use of 66 clinical approa...

Objective This study describes the development of an intervention to improve family-centred care in adult audiology services. Design The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) was followed to develop the intervention. The BCW involves eight steps across three stages: (1) understanding the behaviour, (2) identifying intervention options, and (3) identifying...

A variety of motivational processes are thought to underlie the behaviors and actions of first-time hearing help-seekers. People with hearing impairment may delay help-seeking and may not adopt hearing aids despite being recommended them by practitioners. To explore what motivates people to seek hearing help and the impact of the practitioner’s rol...

Objective: To identify the approaches taken by audiologists to address their adult clients' psychosocial needs related to hearing loss. Design: A participatory mixed methods design. Participants generated statements describing the ways in which the psychosocial needs of their adult clients with hearing loss are addressed, and then grouped the st...

Objectives The aims of this study were to a) explore the impact of hearing impairment on people living with dementia in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and b) investigate management of hearing impairment for this population. Methods A descriptive qualitative approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews, was conducted with 23 partici...

Individuals with severe to profound hearing loss are likely to present with complex listening needs that require evidence-based solutions. This document is intended to inform the practice of hearing care professionals who are involved in the audiological management of adults with a severe to profound degree of hearing loss and will highlight the sp...

Hearing impairment (also known as hearing loss) is highly prevalent in residents of nursing facilities and its impacts are far-reaching. Hearing impairment has negative consequences for an individual's quality of life, psychosocial health, physical health, and mortality; these impacts are also exacerbated when hearing impairment cooccurs with other...

For people with hearing impairment (HI), the need to repair hearing-related troubles within conversation is a constant concern that can significantly impact their everyday life and social relationships. This chapter examines repair sequences initiated by people with HI within two corpora, one comprising video-recorded interaction in audiology appoi...

Objective: This study explored the feasibility of cortical automatic threshold estimation (CATE), a fully automated late auditory evoked potential (AEP) test, as an alternative to pure-tone audiometry for hearing threshold estimation for adults with dementia living in aged care. Design: A single group cross-sectional study was conducted. Participan...

Objective: This study explored staff perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to improving the implementation of family-centred care (FCC) in audiology practice. Design: Semi-structured interviews, informed by the COM-B (Capability–Opportunity–Motivation–Behaviour) model, were conducted with staff members at a private hearing care company in A...

Objective: To adapt the Active Communication Education (ACE) programme into Spanish. In addition, this study aimed at determining the effects of the adapted ACE programme on the social/emotional impacts of hearing loss and hearing functioning in a group of older adults with hearing loss who do not wear hearing aids. Design: This was an exploratory...

Trainable hearing aids let users fine-tune their hearing aid settings in their own listening environment: Based on consistent user-adjustments and information about the acoustic environment, the trainable aids will change environment-specific settings to the user’s preference. A requirement for effective fine-tuning is consistency of preference for...

Patient- and family-centered care has been shown to improve outcomes across a range of health conditions. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of interventions to improve the patient- and family-centeredness of care (PFCIs) on the effectiveness of care of young adults (16–25) with chronic health conditions. A segregated design mixe...

Objective: To examine parents' questions to clinicians and how clinicians respond in paediatric hearing healthcare appointments with children with hearing loss. Methods: The data consisted of 48 video-recorded hearing habilitation appointments. Participants included 22 clinicians, 41 children, and 48 parents/carers. Data were analysed using conv...

Background Animal data suggest that jet fuels such as JP-8 are associated with hearing deficits when combined with noise and that the effect is more pronounced than with noise exposure alone. Some studies suggest peripheral dysfunction while others suggest central auditory dysfunction. Human data are limited in this regard. The aim of this study wa...

Purpose Hearing loss self-management refers to the knowledge and skills people use to manage the effects of hearing loss on all aspects of their daily lives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported hearing loss self-management and hearing aid benefit and satisfaction. Method Thirty-seven adults with hear...

Objective: This clinical note describes the Individualised – Active Communication Education (I-ACE) programme designed to improve problem solving and self-management in adults with hearing impairment. Design: The I-ACE was offered to adult clients seeking help for the first time and effects were measured for participants using self-report questionn...

Hearing health care is biomedically focused, device-centered, and clinician-led. There is emerging evidence that these characteristics—all of which are hallmarks of a health care system designed to address acute, rather than chronic, conditions—may contribute to low rates of help-seeking and hearing rehabilitation uptake among adults with hearing l...

Objective: It is estimated that over 60% of adults with dementia will also have a hearing impairment, resulting in a dual sensory-cognitive communication disability. Hearing interventions may lessen the impact of hearing impairment on a communication disability; yet, for audiologists to recommend appropriate hearing interventions, the individual's...

The question of how hearing loss and hearing rehabilitation affect patients’ momentary emotional experiences is one that has received little attention but has considerable potential to affect patients’ psychosocial function. This article is a product from the Hearing, Emotion, Amplification, Research, and Training workshop, which was convened to de...

Objectives: Self-fitting hearing aids have the potential to increase the accessibility of hearing health care. The aims of this study were to (1) identify factors that are associated with the ability to successfully set up a pair of commercially available self-fitting hearing aids; 2) identify factors that are associated with the need for knowledg...

Objectives: The preferences and practices of audiologists in Malaysia towards patient-centred care (PCC) in audiological management of adult patients was investigated using a sequential mixed-method study design. Method: In Phase 1, the Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale questionnaire (PPOS) investigated audiologists’ preferred extent of contro...

Introduction Up to 30% of hearing aids fitted to new adult clients are reported to be of low benefit and used intermittently or not at all. Evidence suggests that additional interventions paired with service-delivery redesign may help improve hearing aid use and benefit. The range of interventions available is limited. In particular, the efficacy o...

Background Family‐centred care (FCC) is recognized as best practice in the delivery of early intervention services for children with hearing loss (HL) and their families. However, there has been little research involving direct observation of family‐centred communication practices in paediatric hearing habilitation appointments, which means little...

Current approaches to the measurement of hearing aid benefit typically use clinical or laboratory-based speech perception tests or retrospective self-report surveys. However, when assessing hearing aid outcomes in adults with mild hearing impairment, the traditional outcome measures may not be sufficiently sensitive. An alternative to these techniq...

To obtain real-world insights into the hearing difficulties of individuals, the field of hearing research has recently started to adopt ecological momentary assessment. Using this approach, study participants describe their experiences in real time, in their own natural environment. This paper describes the use of ecological momentary assessment in...

Background and Aim The published literature addressing the nature of patient- and family-centred care (PFCC) among young adults (16–25 years old) living with chronic disease and their family members is diverse. The aim of this systematic review was to collect and interpretatively synthesise this literature to generate a conceptual understanding of...

Objective: The present study aimed to explore the nature of parental involvement in the intervention of children with hearing loss, as experienced by parents. Design: A qualitative descriptive methodology was adopted to conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of parents who have a child with hearing loss. Study sampl...

Objective: To evaluate the capacity of a self-management assessment tool to identify unmet hearing health care (HHC) needs; to determine whether such an assessment yields novel and clinically useful information. Design: Hearing loss self-management (HLSM) was assessed with the Partners in Health scale and the Cue and Response interview from the...

Objective: Financial cost is a barrier for many older adults in their decision to obtain hearing aids (HAs). This study aimed to examine conversations about the cost of HAs in detail within initial audiology appointments. Design: Sixty-two initial audiology appointments were video-recorded. The data were analysed using conversation analysis. St...

Purpose: The study aimed (a) to profile audiologists' language during the diagnosis and management planning phase of hearing assessment appointments and (b) to explore associations between audiologists' language and patients' decisions to obtain hearing aids. Method: Sixty-two audiologist-patient dyads participated. Patient participants were age...

Background: Conversational breakdowns are a persistent concern for older adults with hearing impairment (HI). Previous studies in experimental settings have investigated potential causes of breakdowns in conversations with a person with HI, and effective strategies for repairing these breakdowns. However, little research has explored the causes of...

Objective: This study explored the nature of audiological services for adults with hearing impairment in Malaysia, with an emphasis on whether current services address clients' overall functioning as described by the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) framework. Design: An online...

Following the diagnosis of hearing loss in a child, parents are required to make a number of important decisions, including the type of educational approach to adopt in intervention. Many professionals hold strong biases about the various educational approaches, which can make it difficult for parents to make informed decisions. A systematic review...

Objective: To profile the communication between audiologists and patients in initial appointments on a biomedical-psychosocial continuum; and explore the associations between these profiles and 1) characteristics of the appointment and 2) patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids. Methods: Sixty-three initial hearing assessment appointments wer...

Objective: This study set out to obtain information on the impact of trainable hearing aids among clinicians and hearing aid users and candidates. Design: Two online adaptive surveys were developed to evaluate provision, uptake and experience or expectation of trainable hearing aids. Study sample: Responses from 259 clinicians, 81 hearing aid users...

Implementation of patient-centred care has resulted in positive outcomes in adult patients, particularly with regards to compliance and adherence to management plans. Despite a preference for incorporating patient-centred care into audiological management indicated by audiologists and adult patients in Western countries, it is unknown whether audio...

Purpose: To explore speech pathology services for people with Down syndrome across the lifespan. Method: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working in Australia were invited to complete an online survey, which enquired about the speech pathology services they had provided to client/s with Down syndrome in the past 12 months. The data were analy...

Trainable hearing aids: clinical impact and reliability of training

Hearing impairment is highly prevalent in the older population, and it impacts communication and quality of life for both the people with the hearing difficulties and their significant others. In this article, typical audiological assessment and management of an older adult is contrasted with a best practice approach wherein the World Health Organi...

The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is widely used in disability and health sectors as a framework to describe the far-reaching effects of a range of health conditions on individuals. This biopsychosocial framework can be used to describe the experience of an individual in the com...

Objectives: The transtheoretical model (TTM) of behaviour change focuses on clients' readiness for adopting new health behaviours. This study explores how clients' readiness for change can be identified through their interactions with audiologists during history-taking in initial appointments; and whether clients' readiness has consequences for th...

NAL News G ood self-management skills are the cornerstone to living well with a chronic health condition. A person with diabetes, for example, who regularly monitors his blood sugar levels and knows how to regulate his food intake is more likely to enjoy a better quality of life, an increased sense of independence, and greater self-efficacy than a...

This study investigated to what extent spatial release from masking (SRM) deficits in hearing-impaired adults may be related to reduced audibility of the test stimuli. Sixteen adults with sensorineural hearing loss and 28 adults with normal hearing were assessed on the Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences test, which measures SRM using a symmet...

Purpose: To explore the perceptions of audiologists' about the role of family members in hearing rehabilitation for older adults with hearing impairment (HI), the influence of family member involvement on outcomes, and factors affecting their involvement. Method: A qualitative descriptive research study was undertaken. Using a purposeful samplin...

Hearing impairment is highly prevalent in adult populations worldwide and becomes more prevalent with age. Given that the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that prevalence is higher in developing countries than in developed nations, it is anticipated that the prevalence is also high in Malaysia. With the effects of hearing impairment on adul...

Objectives: This study investigated if a hearing aid user guide modified using best practice principles for health literacy resulted in superior ability to perform hearing aid management tasks, compared with the user guide in the original form. Design: This research utilized a two-arm study design to compare the original manufacturer's user guid...

Prompted by the continued prevalence of hearing related disabilities accepted as eligible for compensation and treatment under Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs legislation, a review of recent literature regarding possible causation mechanisms and thus, possible prevention strategies, is timely. The emerging thoughts on the effects of a co...

Background: There is a need for clinical tools that capture the real-life impact of aphasia. This study reports on a psychometric investigation of two self-report tools: the Communicative Activities Checklist and the Social Activities Checklist (COMACT; SOCACT), which assess the dimensions of communication activity and social participation in aphas...

Background Effective practitioner-patient communication throughout diagnosis and management planning positively influences patient outcomes. A patient-centered approach whereby patient involvement in decision making is facilitated, a therapeutic relationship is developed and information is bilaterally exchanged in an appropriate manner, leads to i...

Objectives: The nature of communication between patient and practitioner influences patient outcomes. Specifically, the history-taking phase of a consultation plays a role in the development of a relationship and in the success of subsequent shared decision making. There is limited research investigating patient-centered communication in audiology...

Objective: This study aimed to investigate family members' involvement in audiology rehabilitation appointments. Design: Audiology appointments were video-recorded and analysed using quantitative coding and conversation analysis (CA). Study sample: The study sample included 13 audiologists, 17 older adults with hearing impairment, and 17 famil...

Family members are significantly affected by the consequences of hearing impairment and can potentially play an important role in a client’s hearing rehabilitation. This paper uses two types of interaction analysis (Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS) and Conversation Analysis (CA)) to examine family member participation in a corpus of 17 vide...

Purpose: It has long been documented that patients may experience emotional reactions to a diagnosis of hearing impairment and recommendation of hearing aids. Because of this, patients may raise psychosocial concerns regarding their hearing rehabilitation during audiology appointments, particularly in relation to getting hearing aids. However, thu...

Background: Between 68.1-89.5% of clients report that they are satisfied with their hearing aids. Two variables that are thought to contribute to dissatisfaction with hearing aids are product performance, and a mismatch between performance and client prefitting expectations about hearing-aid performance (i.e., disconfirmation). A focus on variable...

Background: The ability to use interaural cues to segregate target speech from competing signals allows people with normal hearing to understand speech at significantly poorer signal-to-noise ratios. This ability, referred to as spatial processing ability or spatial release from masking, has been shown to be deficient in people with a sensorineura...

Objectives: The aims of this study were to (a) compare language outcomes in pediatric cochlear implant users enrolled in three different communication programs: sign and spoken language, auditory-oral, and auditory-verbal therapy, and (b) examine factors influencing language outcomes. Methods: Post-implant standard scores on language assessments...

Objective: Patient-centred care is a term frequently associated with quality health care. Despite extensive literature from a range of health-care professions that provide description and measurement of patient-centred care, a definition of patient-centredness in audiological rehabilitation is lacking. The current study aimed to define patient-cen...

Background: Previous research suggests that audiological rehabilitation for older adults could include group communication programs in addition to hearing aid fitting or as an alternative to hearing aid fitting for those people who do not wish to proceed with hearing aids. This pilot study was a first attempt to evaluate a Swedish version of such...

Objective: Patient-centredness is becoming a core value of health services worldwide, however it remains largely unexplored in audiology. This study investigated audiologists' preferences for patient-centredness and identified factors that explain audiologists' preferences for patient-centredness. Design: All members of the Audiological Society...

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the content, design, and readability of printed hearing aid user guides to determine their suitability for older adults, who are the main users of hearing aids. Design: Hearing aid user guides were assessed using four readability formulae and a standardized tool to assess content and design (SAM -...

Objective: To examine associations between audiological and non-audiological factors and successful hearing aid use in older adults. Design: In a retrospective study, audiological factors, attitudinal beliefs (as derived from the health belief model), client demographics, psychological factors, and age-related factors were evaluated. Study samp...

Objective: The acceptable noise level (ANL), a measure of noise tolerance, has been proposed as a predictor for successful hearing aid use. The aims of this study were to obtain normative data, and to evaluate the clinical feasibility and predictive value of an Australian version of the ANL test in an older population. Design: Repeated ANL measu...

Objective: Many older adults with hearing impairment are not confident in their ability to use hearing aids (i.e. experience low hearing aid self-efficacy), which has been found to be a barrier to hearing help-seeking and hearing aid use. This study aimed to determine what factors were associated with achieving adequate hearing aid self-efficacy....

Objective: This discussion paper aims to synthesise the literature on patient-centred care from a range of health professions and to relate this to the field of rehabilitative audiology. Through review of the literature, this paper addresses five questions: What is patient-centred care? How is patient-centred care measured? What are the outcomes o...

Objective: To examine the influence of audiological and non-audiological factors on help-seeking for hearing impairment (HI) in older adults. Design: A retrospective research design was employed. Participants completed 14 measures, after which two multivariate, multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to determine which fac...