ArticleGlobal health action2022
Community-based adult hearing care provided by community healthcare workers using mHealth technologies.
Article in Global health action, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Feasibility, efficacy and effectiveness of community health worker-facilitated hearing aid provision: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Digital Technologies for Children With Hearing Impairments to Support Language Learning: Scoping Review.JMIR rehabilitation and assistive technologies · 2026Review
- The potential of teleaudiology in remote areas as the Arctic: a scoping review of treatment and rehabilitation in remote and low-resource settings.International journal of circumpolar health · 2025Article
- Preset Hearing Aid Program Selection in Low-Income Communities: A Longitudinal Study.Audiology research · 2025Article
- Hearing loss characteristics and cerumen management efficacy in low-income South African communities: a cross-sectional study.Primary health care research & development · 2025Article
- Temporal trends in prevalence and years of life lived with disability for hearing loss in China from 1990 to 2021: an analysis of the global burden of disease study 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Service delivery approaches related to hearing aids in low- and middle-income countries or resource-limited settings: A systematic scoping review.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Mobile Health Hearing Aid Acclimatization and Support Program in Low-Income Communities: Feasibility Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Remote Technologies to Enhance Service Delivery for Adults: Clinical Research Perspectives.Seminars in hearing · 2023Review
- Combined hearing and vision screening programs: A scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Community-based adult hearing care provided by community healthcare workers using mHealth technologies.Global health action · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe rising prevalence of hearing loss is a global health concern. Professional hearing services are largely absent within low- and middle-income countries where appropriate skills are lacking. Task-shifting to community healthcare workers (CHWs) supported by mHealth technologies is an important strategy to address the problem.
objectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of a community-based rehabilitation model providing hearing aids to adults in low-income communities using CHWs supported by mHealth technologies.
methodBetween September 2020 and October 2021, hearing aid assessments and fittings were implemented for adults aged 18 and above in two low-income communities in the Western Cape, South Africa, using trained CHWs. A quantitative approach with illustrative open-ended questions was utilised to measure and analyse hearing aid outcomes. Data were collected through initial face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and face-to-face visits post-fitting. Responses to open-ended questions were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The International Outcome Inventory - Hearing Aids questionnaire determined standardised hearing aid outcomes.
resultsOf the 152 adults in the community who self-reported hearing difficulties, 148 were successfully tested by CHWs during home visits. Most had normal hearing (39.9%), 24.3% had bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, 20.9% had suspected conductive hearing loss, and 14.9% had unilateral hearing loss, of which 5.4% had suspected conductive loss. Forty adults met the inclusion criteria to be fitted with hearing aids. Nineteen of these were fitted bilaterally. Positive hearing aid outcomes and minimal device handling challenges were reported 45 days post-fitting and were maintained at six months. The majority (73.7%) of participants fitted were still making use of their hearing aids at the six-month follow-up.
conclusionsImplementing a hearing healthcare service-delivery model facilitated by CHWs in low-income communities is feasible. mHealth technologies used by CHWs can support scalable service-delivery models with the potential for improved access and affordability in low-income settings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.