Background and objectives: The objectives of this study are to identify patterns of hearing aid usage among U.S. National Health & Aging Trends Study (NHATS) participants and to examine users' characteristics associated with each pattern.
Research design and methods: Using data from 666 adults ages 65 and above from NHATS, we analyzed individuals' self-reported hearing aid use from eight waves of data, 2011-2018, using group-based trajectory modeling to identify clusters of individuals with similar utilization patterns of use over time. Potential risk factors associated with membership to a specific group included baseline sociodemographic characteristics, problems with activities of daily living, presence of a caregiver, and experiencing problems with their hearing aid. We compute and analyze the odds ratios between individuals' baseline characteristics and group membership.
Results: We identified three utilization group patterns: continued use (n = 510, 76.6%), interrupted use (n = 121, 18.2%), and ceased use (n = 35, 5.2%). Individuals with an income under the poverty line had 2.9 (95% CI: 1.09, 7.75) and 2.7 times (95% CI: 1.38, 5.27) the odds of being in the interrupted and ceased use group, respectively, compared with the continued use group. Other risk factors for interrupted and ceased use included lower education and having a caregiver.
Discussion and implications: Nearly a quarter of hearing aid users experience interrupted or ceased use of hearing aids. Socioeconomic factors, such as age, income, and education, may be relevant for how individuals use assistive medical devices over time and could inform policymakers to support maintained use of hearing aids.
Keywords: Disability; Health outcomes; Observational studies.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America.