Treatment burden can affect patients' ability to carry out tasks or follow healthcare providers' recommendations. Evaluating the burden of using and maintaining hearing aids can help identify factors that affect patient compliance. This study also examined the support that older adults receive and prefer to overcome this burden....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists should routinely assess treatment burden (not just hearing outcomes) in older patients, as accumulated effort around hearing aid use and system navigation is a meaningful driver of non-adherence.
Identifying and reducing treatment burden could be a key lever for improving hearing aid adherence rates, which remain stubbornly low among older adults globally.
- 01Qualitative design captures lived experience of treatment burden in older hearing aid users.
- 02Burden spans device handling, maintenance, battery/charging management, and healthcare system navigation.
- 03Treatment burden may be a significant but underrecognised cause of hearing aid non-adherence.
- 04Findings suggest clinical workflows should screen for burden, not only audiometric outcomes.
- 05Published in BMC Geriatrics, a peer-reviewed open-access journal focused on aging.
Treatment burden associated with hearing aid use negatively affects adherence to audiological care recommendations among older adults.
studypartially supportedOlder adults experience burdens related to device handling, maintenance, and healthcare system navigation when using hearing aids.
studysupported- PMID
- 42902201
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12877-026-07862-4.
- Journal
- BMC Geriatrics
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Older adults with hearing loss who use hearing aids
- Intervention
- Qualitative exploration of treatment burden experiences associated with hearing aid use
Primary outcomes
Nature and sources of treatment burden related to hearing aid use; Impact of treatment burden on adherence to audiological care recommendations