Intervention Research to Increase Pediatric Hearing Device Use: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Purpose: This study is a scoping review examining interventions to increase hearing device use for children. Method: Online databases were used to identify peer-reviewed journal articles published prior to November 1, 2021, yielding 1,288 after duplications were removed. Four articles met the inclusion criteria after articles were screened by title name and abstract and subsequent full-text screening of six articles. A qualitative analysis was conducted to identify features of the intervention studies related to the participants, design, intervention, key findings, and limitations. Results: The included studies were published between 1982 and 2021, and in all four studies, the children used hearing aids. All four of the studies used a longitudinal design to address hearing aid use problems, with the timeframe ranging from approximately 1 month to 6 months and had variable success in increasing use time. None of the studies included a protocol, such as counseling skills, for addressing internal challenges that interfere with hearing aid use. Conclusions: Review of the limited research in this area found variable effectiveness for the interventions studied. There is an urgent need for research in this area to inform clinical practice and provide evidence-based interventions to address malleable factors that interfere with audibility for children who use hearing devices.