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10/09/2015  |   3:00 PM - 4:15 PM   |  SAC Auditorium

A Community-based Hearing Intervention for Korean American Older Adults with Hearing Impairment: A Pilot Study

Objective: Hearing impairment in older adults is independently associated with poorer social, cognitive, and physical function. However, hearing healthcare remains confusing and inaccessible to most ethnic minorities including older Korean Americans (KAs) who are predominantly first-generation immigrants. This study aims to adapt and test the feasibility of a community-based intervention to provide hearing counseling and affordable amplification devices to older KAs with hearing impairment and their communication partners. Methods: A community-based intervention originally developed to promote hearing health among English speaking seniors in low-income housing was adapted to apply it to KAs. We undertook the following five steps following Barrera & Castro’s cultural adaptation framework: (1) information gathering from literature and focus group interviews with older KAs with hearing impairment and their families, (2) preliminary adaptation design with translation of intervention materials, (3) preliminary adaptation test with key community informants, (4) adaptation refinement, and (5) cultural adaptation pilot trial to older KAs (n=15) and their communication partners (n=15). Results: Many older KAs do not seek help for hearing or adopt listening devices due to language and financial barriers along with sociocultural stigma towards aging and disability. We have developed a program consisting of a 1-hr session that teaches KAs how to use a listening device, provides aural rehabilitative strategies, followed by a group practice session. Preliminary implementation has demonstrated strongly positive responses from the participants, suggesting feasibility of the culturally adapted hearing health intervention in older KAs. Conclusions: This study is the first to report the cultural adaptation process of a hearing healthcare model using a community outreach program in an underserved population of racial/ethnic minorities. The adapted community-based hearing health intervention has clear potential to address poor access to hearing healthcare among ethnic minorities.

  • Participants will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based intervention consisting of hearing screening, culturally-tailored hearing counseling, and immediate provision of a low-cost amplification device for older Korean Americans with hearing impairment and their families
  • Participants will be able to describe a community-based hearing healthcare model for ethnic minority older adults

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Janet Choi (POC,Co-Presenter), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, jchoi101@jhmi.edu;
Janet Choi, MPH, is a fourth year medical student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is currently taking a year off from medical studies to conduct research investigating health effects of age-related hearing loss and ways to address disparities in hearing healthcare. She is working under the mentorship of Dr. Frank Lin, MD, PhD, an Associate Professor in the department of otolaryngology, geriatrics, mental health, and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University.

      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial - No relevant financial relationship exist.

Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.


      AAA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -

Frank Lin (Co-Author), Johns Hopkins University, flin1@jhmi.edu;
Frank Lin, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health. Dr. Lin's clinical practice is dedicated to otology and the medical and surgical management of hearing loss. His research is primarily focused on studying the interface between hearing loss and aging. In particular, Dr. Lin has established multiple collaborations with gerontologists, cognitive scientists, epidemiologists, and auditory scientists that form the basis for his current research program studying the impact of hearing loss on the cognitive and physical functioning of older adults and the potential role of aural rehabilitative strategies in mitigating these effects.
      ASHA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -

Nonfinancial -


      AAA DISCLOSURE:

Financial -