ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Up to a quarter of the adults who own hearing aids never use them. To provide these 'non-users' with the best help, hearing care professionals need to have an in-depth understanding of the non-users' beliefs and feelings with regard to the non-use. This qualitative study explored these beliefs and feelings in order to increase our understanding of hearing aid non-users. DESIGN: Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were completed. STUDY SAMPLE: Eleven hearing aid owners (aged 54-80 years) who reported that they never or hardly ever used their hearing aids. RESULTS: The participants expressed a variety of feelings towards their non-use, including indifference, self-annoyance, frustration, powerlessness, shame, and guilt. Their feelings were related to beliefs about: (1) the severity of their hearing handicap with and without hearing aids, (2) whom or what was responsible for the non-use, and (3) the attitudes of significant others towards the non-use. CONCLUSIONS: Hearing-aid non-users differ in their beliefs and feelings towards the non-use. A patient-centred approach is needed.
Subject(s)
Correction of Hearing Impairment/instrumentation , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Hearing Aids/psychology , Hearing Disorders/therapy , Patient Compliance/psychology , Persons With Hearing Impairments/rehabilitation , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Correction of Hearing Impairment/psychology , Culture , Emotions , Female , Hearing Disorders/diagnosis , Hearing Disorders/psychology , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Male , Middle Aged , Persons With Hearing Impairments/psychology , Qualitative ResearchABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Psychiatric disorders are hard to detect in a primary care setting. The vocational training for general practitioners (GPs) of the University of Maastricht, the Netherlands, intends to create a new comprehensive programme on diagnosing psychiatric disorders. AIM: We consulted the literature to obtain an answer to the question: is evidence available for the effectiveness of specific educational methods to teach GP trainees psychiatric diagnostic skills? METHODOLOGY: We searched in four databases for studies on a variety of search terms (39) referring to primary care, psychiatry, diagnosis, education and quality. As selection criterium for outcome measure we took change in diagnostic competence. RESULTS: From a number of 769 articles 27 methodologically sound studies remained. This article presents several of their research characteristics. No conclusive evidence has been found for the effectivity of an isolated educational method. The combination of methods seems promising. However, no specific mix of methods is a guarantee for success. CONCLUSIONS: We made some recommendations for training psychiatric diagnostic competency. The literature endorses our own idea that education in this field should include reflection on attitude and barriers.
