RESUMEN
Background of the Research: Higher prevalence of hearing loss is reported among older adults. Hearing aids have been proven to be a viable option to reduce the burden associated with hearing impairment. Despite these positive aspects, there is no increase seen in hearing aid adoption or usage among individuals with hearing impairment. OBJECTIVE: To explore the aspects favoring hearing aid usage among individuals with hearing impairment based on hearing aid users' and audiologists' perspectives. METHOD: The present study used inductive thematic analysis. The participants were 12 hearing aid users and 12 Audiologists. The study was conducted in interview mode either face-to-face or telephonic mode. The verbatim of the participants was transcribed and different codes were assigned. The codes were used to derive the subthemes and themes. RESULTS: Four major themes were obtained. The first and second themes were Client-centred and Clinician-centred aspects respectively. The third theme focussed on Hearing aid trial and service delivery aspects. The fourth theme discussed mainly Hearing aid-associated benefits and drawbacks. CONCLUSION: Audiologist should effectively address the challenges posted by hearing aid users, this in turn can favor the hearing adoption among the adults with hearing loss.
RESUMEN
CONTEXT: Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is considered as a common occupational hazard among the industrial workers. The printing press is one of the common industrial set up where noise levels are often high. The awareness of people working in such a setup is generally less towards the hazards that is caused by noise exposure. AIM: The current study was designed to identify the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of printing press workers towards NIHL. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: : Cross-sectional study was carried using an adapted and validated KAP questionnaire. It was administered on 57 workers in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. METHODS AND MATERIAL: The study was carried out in two phases: phase I included the adaptation and validation of KAP questionnaire to printing press workers. Phase II comprised of the administration of the questionnaire among the study population. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: : Descriptive statistics was used to compile the results. To measure the internal consistency Cronbach's alpha scale was used. RESULTS: The responses obtained from workers showed inadequate knowledge, negative attitudes in certain subdomains and poor practice. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from the present study sheds light on the dearth of awareness in printing press workers on hearing conservation and need of training programs to educate the printing press workers towards the effects of NIHL.