Descriptions of Hearing Loss Severity Differentially Influence Parental Concern about the Impact of Childhood Hearing Loss

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure how parent concern about childhood hearing loss varies under different description conditions: classification-based, audibility-based, and simulation-based descriptions. Method: We randomly allocated study participants (n = 143) to complete an online survey about expected child difficulties with listening situations with hearing loss. Our participants were parents of children with typical hearing in the 0- to 12-month age range. Participants were exposed to one type of description (classification-based, audibility-based, or simulation-based) and one level of hearing loss (slight, mild, and moderate or their audibility and simulation equivalents), producing nine total groups. Participants rated the level of expected difficulty their child would experience performing age-appropriate listening tasks with the given hearing loss. They also selected what they perceived as the most appropriate intervention from a list of increasingly intense options. Results: Our findings revealed that audibility-based descriptions elicited significantly higher levels of parent concerns about hearing loss than classification-based strategies, but that simulation-based descriptions elicited the highest levels of concern. Those assigned to simulation-based and audibility-based groups also judged relatively more intense intervention options as appropriate compared to those assigned to classification-based groups. Conclusions: This study expands our knowledge base about descriptive factors that impact levels of parent concern about hearing loss after diagnosis. This has potentially cascading effects on later intervention actions such as fitting hearing technology. It also provides a foundation for developing and testing clinical applications of audibility-based counseling strategies.