Study looking at response to diagnosis of hearing loss

Audiology master’s student Katrina Light has been awarded an Oticon Foundation grant for her research investigating the responses of adults to being diagnosed with hearing loss.

Katrina, who has a PhD in psychological medicine from Otago University, is currently studying towards a Master of Audiology degree at the University of Canterbury.

For her master’s project Katrina is looking at patients’ initial reactions to a diagnosis of progressive hearing loss as well as the audiologist’s role in those responses.

Katrina aims to survey 50 individuals after they have had their hearing tested for the first time. Her questionnaire, which study participants will be asked to fill out in the first 24 hours after diagnosis, will ask questions gauging their emotions and how they felt about the way their audiologist told them.

She will then follow up a week later with a face-to-face interview to see if anything has changed with more time for the news to sink in, and later still, Katrina will be in contact with patients once they have chosen their treatment – such as whether to have a hearing aid fitted or not – to ask about their choices and how they perceive their audiological care.

“This project is really interesting as nothing has been done like this before: looking at initial reactions and responses. It will give the profession a better understanding of what patients experience at the time they are diagnosed,” said Katrina.

“In New Zealand, audiological counselling isn’t an area that is currently taught, so one aim of my project is that we might be able to develop a workshop out of the findings. The idea behind the research is to be able to feed back to practising audiologists what they are doing well and teach up-and-coming audiologists of the skills and approaches patients do appreciate.”

Katrina, whose project is being supervised by Dr Valerie Looi (Communication Disorders) and Dr Janet Carter (Psychology), said recruitment for the study began in April. She has so far interviewed five participants from nine clinics in Christchurch, but is now looking to recruit further afield.

The Oticon Foundation in New Zealand is a charitable trust dedicated to improving the quality of life of hearing-impaired New Zealanders by raising awareness and knowledge about hearing loss. Each year the foundation funds a range of projects ranging from specialist training, research, services for hearing-impaired people, to visits from overseas experts.