The Gain Project is led by Dr Helen Henshaw and Dr Emma Broome at the University of Nottingham. It is a programme of research that aims to understand and address the barriers that adults with hearing loss might face in using their hearing aids, or in using them regularly.
If you have hearing aids, do you use them regularly, sometimes or not at all? If so the Gain Project is looking to you for your help. Once you have registered you will receive the questionnaire via email or via post. Approximately 7 days after you have completed the questionnaire, a researcher will contact you by telephone or email (depending on your preference) at a preferred time to complete the final questions. You will receive a voucher on completion of the study as a small thank you for your time.
If you would like to take part in questionnaires, please contact Ms Paige Church by email at this address paige.church@nottingham.ac.uk
Approximately 12 million people in the UK (1 in 5) have a hearing loss. Hearing loss causes communication difficulties. Hearing aids can help many people overcome these difficulties, which can be life changing. The NHS provides hearing aids free of charge to those who would benefit from using them. However, the non-use or irregular use of hearing aids is high, meaning that many people are not realising the full benefit. Similar to taking medications as prescribed by a doctor, regular hearing aid use is a positive health behaviour. Researchers at the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre are using health psychology, and in particular health behaviour theory, to understand how we might improve the beneficial use of hearing aids by adults with hearing loss.
What is health behaviour theory?
Health behaviour theory is helpful for understanding how and why a particular behaviour occurs. So for example why people have hearing aids but don’t use them or only use them sometimes. What make a hearing aid user decide when to and when not to wear their hearing aids. You can find out more at this link https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/hearingloss/2021/04/13/2359/