HearEase: A Candidacy Tool for Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids

Project Summary/Abstract Hearing loss is the third most common chronic health condition affecting 37 million Americans. Untreated hearing loss is estimated to cost the United States two billion dollars in additional healthcare expenditure. Hearing aids are the primary treatment option for hearing loss, however only 30% of individuals who could benefit from a hearing aid use them. In an effort to improve the rates of hearing aid use, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of Over-the-Counter (OTC) Hearing Aids in October 2022. There is great expectation that OTC hearing aids will significantly improve the uptake of hearing aids among OTC hearing aid target populations. Unfortunately, only 16% of over 1000 consumers surveyed by our lab would consider using OTC hearing aids. One of the barriers that may hinder OTC hearing aid adoption is the inability to self- determine candidacy. Presently, the product information label (PIL) for OTC hearing aids is the only consumer- focused tool intended to help an individual self-determine if they an appropriate user. Unfortunately, preliminary work from our lab has shown that consumers do not attend to the PIL in its entirety, and it is often only made available to the consumer after purchase. Thus, we propose to supplement the PIL by developing an interactive mobile (m)health decision aid (HearEase) that will help guide consumers through the self-candidacy process for OTC hearing aids prior to their purchase. However, the development of HearEase will be critically dependent on thoughtful design and implementation. Thus, we will work with key stakeholders (manufacturers and retailers) to create an implementation plan that will ensure that HearEase will be adopted and implemented by manufacturers and retailers. These overall goals will be achieved by the following aims. Aim 1: To develop an interactive mHealth decision aid (HearEase) that will help potential consumers of OTC HA to self-determine candidacy. Aim 2: To develop the implementation plan for HearEase.