Randomised Controlled Trial of a Self-Affirmation Theory-Based Intervention to Promote Hearing Aid Use

Participants will be recruited through two NHS audiology clinics where they will be invited to participant in this study via an invitation letter either enclosed within their appointment letter or given to them at their audiology appointment. The information used to identify potential participants is that of their diagnoses (must be using or being supplied with hearing aids) . The audiology clinic staff will be identifying potential clients therefore it is believed that there is unlikely to be a breach of confidentiality. All participants will be sent a £10 shop-for-all voucher for participating in the second stage of the study (10-week post appointment) this will be sent to participants home after 6 months and this will include an invitation to a follow up questionnaire.

All prospective participants will be required to give written consent before being assigned to the study and those unable to do this will not be included. After consent is given participants will be allocated to either the intervention group or the control group. Procedure of the proposed study is as follows:

1. Each participant will be randomly assigned to either the control group or the intervention group. Blinding of both the participant and the researcher with regards to which group the participant has been assigned to will be achieved by all questionnaires being placed in opaque envelopes which will have a number printed on the front of the envelope. The numbers from the envelope will be placed in a computerised list generator and an order list of how they are to be administered will be produced. Alternatively participants can go online and the platform will randomly assign them to either the intervention or the control questionnaire.
2. Participants in both groups fill in a questionnaire which contain the following Scales: The Anxiety toward Ageing Scale (AAS), The Attitudes Toward Loss of Hearing Questionnaire (ATLH) and The Glasgow Benefit Hearing Aid Scale (GBHA) as well as a self-report question on their daily hearing aid use. The intervention group also undertake a self-affirmation exercise which is placed at the end of the questionnaire. This is expected to take 20-30 minutes.
3. Participants return 10 weeks later (post) and have their hearing aid usage downloaded (hours per day the aids were worn) from their hearing aids by an audiologist before subsequently filling in another questionnaire which again contains the AAS, ATLH, GBHA and a self- report question on their daily hearing aid use. This is expected to take 30-40 minutes.

3A: If it is not possible for the participant to come back for a follow up appointment the second questionnaire will be sent out postal to the participants address or an email with a hyperlink to the follow up questionnaire online will be sent to participants who previously completed the first questionnaire online.

4: Six months later participants are contacted via email ( hyperlink) or post to fill in an optional questionnaire containing the AAS, ATLH, GBHA and a self-report question on their daily hearing aid use which they send back to the researcher. This should take 20-30 minutes. If participants receive the follow up questionnaire through the post the shopping voucher will also be enclosed. Online participants will also receive their shopping voucher through the post.