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OBJECTIVES: Hearing loss in older adults increases the risk of depression, loneliness, social isolation, cognitive impairments, and dementia; negative impacts that can be potentially attenuated by the adoption of a hearing aid. While objective hearing loss is a good predictor of hearing aid adoption, the subjective impact of hearing-related issues is typically a stronger predictor. We recently found that the subjective experience of hearing loss is worse for individuals with a relatively greater tendency to experience boredom and failures of attention. Thus, we now explore these cognitive-affective individual-difference factors as potential mediators of the predictive link between subjective hearing loss and hearing aid purchase. DESIGN: A sample of older adults (aged 50+) recruited through hearing-care clinics (Connect Hearing Canada) completed an objective hearing assessment (audiometric thresholds) and completed self-report questionnaires on their subjective hearing-related difficulties (hearing handicap, effortful exertion while listening), tendency to experience boredom and mind-wandering, and self-perceived cognitive functioning. RESULTS: While neither boredom proneness nor spontaneous mind-wandering significantly predicted hearing aid adoption on their own over the next 5 years, parallel-mediation models revealed that boredom proneness and spontaneous mind-wandering did partially mediate the relation between hearing handicap and hearing aid adoption, as well as effortful exertion while listening and hearing aid adoption. That is, while greater hearing handicap and effortful exertion while listening predicted higher likelihoods of hearing aid adoption, higher proneness to boredom and spontaneous mind-wandering predicted lower likelihoods of hearing aid adoption. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests that the subjective experience of hearing loss has cognitive-affective components that also affect hearing aid adoption.
Smith et al. (Fri,) studied this question.