title: Hearing help-seeking and rehabilitation: perspectives of adults with hearing impairment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigated the perspectives of adults with hearing impairment on hearing help-seeking and rehabilitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Individual semi-structured interviews were completed.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 34 adults with hearing impairment in four countries (Australia, Denmark, UK, and USA) participated. Participants had a range of experience with hearing help-seeking and rehabilitation, from never having sought help to being satisfied hearing-aid users.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Qualitative content analysis identified four main categories ('perceiving my hearing impairment', 'seeking hearing help', 'using my hearing aids', and 'perspectives and knowledge') and, at the next level, 25 categories. This article reports on the densest categories: they are described, exemplified with interview quotes, and discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  People largely described hearing help-seeking and rehabilitation in the context of their daily lives. Adults with hearing impairment rarely described clinical encounters towards hearing help-seeking and rehabilitation as a connected process. They portrayed interactions with clinicians as isolated events rather than chronologically-ordered steps relating to a common goal. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Eriksholm Research Centre, Oticon A/S, Snekkersten, Denmark. arl@oticon.dk
authors.forename: Ariane
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laplante-Lévesque
authors.forename: Line V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Knudsen
authors.forename: Jill E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Preminger
authors.forename: Lesley
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Öberg
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lunner
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hickson
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Naylor
authors.forename: Sophia E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kramer
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D012048:Correction of Hearing Impairment / Q000523:psychology*; D003718:Denmark; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006310:Hearing Aids / Q000523:psychology*; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007629:Kentucky; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010465:Perception; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011793:Queensland