Abstract
Objective: Hearing impairment is linked to increased fatigue, yet little is known about the real-world impact of this fatigue. This qualitative study investigated the experience of daily-life fatigue in people with a hearing impairment.Design: Individual face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was then used to analyse the data.Study sample: Fourteen hearing impaired participants (aged 44–70 years) who varied in terms of hearing loss, hearing aid status, age and gender.Results: The themes and sub-themes that emerged from the transcripts were: Fatigue (effort-driven fatigue, emotion-driven fatigue, breaks and recovery, the perceived relationship between hearing impairment and fatigue, and sleep), Effort (cognitive effort and physical effort), Coping Strategies (withdrawal, avoidance and planning), Relationships and Emotions, Hearing Aid Impact.Conclusions: The study highlights that hearing impairment-related fatigue is experienced by many but not all, and to different extents. Hearing aids were weakly linked to a beneficial effect on fatigue. In addition to the more widely researched effort-driven fatigue, participants described fatigue linked to the negative emotions related to having a hearing impairment. These findings, in conjunction with the widespread utilisation of different coping strategies, demonstrate that the experience of fatigue is varied and likely dependent on personal factors and lifestyle.
Highlights
Hearing loss affects $1 in 6 adults in the UK (Akeroyd, Foreman, and Holman, 2014)
Through reference to fatigue, and indirectly through reference to concomitant emotions and behaviours, this study addresses the three research questions: (1) Do all people with hearing impairment experience hearing impairment-related fatigue in everyday life? (2) How does hearing impairment-related fatigue manifest and what effects does it have on everyday life? (3) What effect does hearing aid fitting have on fatigue? This is achieved with the findings that: 1. Many, but not all, participants were aware of experiencing hearing-impairment related fatigue
We did include an additional stage at the end of analysis involving deductive analysis to assess reliability and validity (Joffe 2012), but the deviation from Braun and Clarke must be noted. This is the first study of its kind to offer direct insight into the daily-life fatigue experienced by people with a hearing impairment
Summary
Hearing loss affects $1 in 6 adults in the UK (Akeroyd, Foreman, and Holman, 2014). Fatigue is regularly described as comorbid within this large group of people (Bess and Hornsby 2014; Hetu et al 1988), but there is little research in this area. The most often cited cause of increased fatigue in hearing impairment is that reduced audibility results in increased listening effort in order to maintain performance. In turn, is presumed to demand a greater drain on cognitive energy, manifesting as fatigue (McGarrigle et al 2014). Evidence tends to suggest that people with hearing loss must exert more effort when listening than those without (Dwyer, Firszt, and Reeder 2014; Zekveld, Kramer, and Festen 2011). Whether this translates to an effect on fatigue, and if so, how, is still unclear (Hornsby, Naylor, and Bess 2016; McGarrigle et al 2014)
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