An interventional study of Motivational interviewing in Hearing Loss, Motivation and Hearing Disability, sponsored by University of British Columbia. Enrolling by invitation at 1 site in Canada. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-07.
Sponsored by University of British Columbia · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
Hearing loss is one of the most common chronic disabilities in the older adult population and affects their quality of life. Hearing aid use can improve one's quality of life by increasing a person's ability to detect, differentiate and locate sound, and improve speech recognition. Several factors seem to reduce motivation to use a hearing aid. Fears of exclusion and shame due to hearing loss are major deterrents to hearing aid use. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a counselling style aimed at creating desire in patients to change their behavior.
There have been pilot studies that suggest one-on-one MI can increase hearing aid use, but other pilot studies found the reverse hence the evidence is inconclusive. The effectiveness of group MI therapy is also being investigated in MI research. While results in group MI research are promising, studies investigating group MI have been limited to substance abuse.
Hearing loss is one of the most common chronic disabilities in the older adult population and affects their quality of life. Hearing aid use can improve one's quality of life by increasing a person's ability to detect, differentiate and locate sound, and improve speech recognition. Several factors seem to reduce motivation to use a hearing aid. Fears of exclusion and shame due to hearing loss are major deterrents to hearing aid use. MI is a counselling style aimed at creating desire in the patient to change their behavior.
To our knowledge, there have been no studies that investigated the impact of group MI on hearing aid use.
Hypothesis Standard care with motivational interviewing in a group setting does not alter the hearing aid usage when compared to the standard care alone in the new hearing aid users.
Study Methodology
Trial Objectives:
The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of group MI in improving adherence to hearing aid use, and to report the adverse effects of group MI if they exist.
Trial Design
Settings The study will be a multi-center, prospective, randomized patient-blind controlled trial and employ a between-subject, pretest-posttest design.
Study participants will be recruited at the audiology clinics located within the greater Vancouver region, BC. Audiology clinics will comply with Work safe BC and the Provincial Health Officer's COVID-19 orders as related to safety plans and best practices.
Outcomes Differences in hearing aid use hours will be measured at each time point. This is a quantitative measure indicated by the mean number of hours the aid is used as recorded by the hearing aids' data logging feature. For bilateral hearing aid users, the mean number of hours will be calculated by averaging the left and right hearing aid use hours.
Participants will also be asked to fill out the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) questionnaire (Cox \& Alexander, 2002) at each time point. This self-reported questionnaire is designed to measure the effectiveness of hearing aid interventions. The IOI-HA have been rigorously tested for their validity, reliability, and sensitivity (Cox \& Alexander, 2002; Vestergaard, 2006).
Randomization Individuals who meet the inclusion criteria and provide informed consent will be assigned to a non-identifiable number sequence. Each sequence will have been previously allocated using block randomization to either treatment or control groups using a statistical software package, such as STATA. Block size variation will be used to prevent prediction of treatment. Creation of allocation lists will be done by the study coordinator, who will not be involved in data collection.
160 studies on the registry are indexed under Deafness; 46 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 180 is above the median of 43 across 106 interventional studies indexed under Deafness.
Browse Deafness studies →University of British Columbia is the lead sponsor of 1,339 studies on the registry; 259 are open to participants now.
Of its 6 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 1 (17%) have results posted.
Compared within Deafness, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Hearing Loss. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Control groups that undergo standard audiological care
Treatment groups that undergo motivational interviewing with audiological care
Behavioral: Motivational interviewing
Each participant in the treatment group will attend a 1-hour MI group session with 9 other participants hosted by a practicing MI therapies via Zoom at one month after the initial visit. This session will utilize MI to elicit motivation in each participant. Participants will also receive standard care delivered at in-person audiology clinic visits.
Hearing aid use hours
Differences in hearing aid use hours will be measured at each time point
Time frame: Study assessments will be performed during the initial visit, and at 1, 3, 6 and 12-month time points.
Patient reported outcomes
International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids questionnaire (Cox \& Alexander, 2002) at each time point.
Time frame: Study assessments will be performed during the initial visit, and at 1, 3, 6 and 12-month time points.
Plan to share: No
Started Mar 2021 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2026, 69 months after the start.
Of 50 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Deafness, half reached primary completion within 46 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 20. This study's planned 69 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 58 studies reached it within 31 months; a quarter within 17.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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