Building Research Capacity on Hearing Loss Interventions in Hispanic/Latinx Communities

Background: Hispanic/Latinx Americans (hereafter Latinx) are an underserved and under-researched population for treatment of age-related hearing loss. PCORI’s 2019 call for proposals seeks new evidence to address decisional dilemmas with hearing interventions and patient-centered outcomes. It is important to engage multiple types of stakeholders now because of a 2017 federal law creating over-the-counter (OTC) hearing devices that increases treatment options for mild to moderate hearing loss.

Proposed Solution to the Problem: This proposed effort seeks to support, engage, and mobilize Latinx patients as stakeholders, asking: How can comparative effectiveness research on hearing interventions be designed to be maximally useful to Latinx patients with age-related hearing loss, their families, and healthcare providers/clinicians? This type of engagement will provide the broader research community with diverse perspectives on the topic that may not have been taken into consideration in traditional research approaches. The project team will build on its previous engagement of patients in Arizona to create a more diverse base of Latinx communities across sociocultural backgrounds and countries of origin by partnering with relevant stakeholders in Florida. The team will also consult with their families/caregivers, community health workers/promotores (CHWs), audiologists, and primary care medical homes.

Project Objectives:

• With the help of CHWs, the team will communicate with patients and health center staff about how to effectively use patient-centered outcomes research and comparative effectiveness research to address disparities and evidence gaps.
• Collaboratively define areas of concern, local issues, research priorities, educational needs, and information relevant to patient-centered research partnerships.
• Engage stakeholders in identifying needs and strengths of Latinx communities in Arizona and Florida to manage age-related hearing loss.
• Collaboratively develop a research agenda and dissemination resources, including summary reports, social media, and bilingual factsheets.

Activities: All project activities will use a community-engaged framework in order to build capacity to guide patient-centered comparative effectiveness research that improves access to hearing health care for diverse populations, specifically Latinx adults.

Project Outcomes:

• Short term (first six months): Contract setup and development of the stakeholder advisory board; formalizing the coalition.
• Medium term (Y1): Hold four townhall sessions, co-develop patient survey/focus group questions with members of the stakeholder advisory board.
• Long term (Y2): Conduct and gather results of patient survey and/or focus groups on patient needs and priorities related to new OTC hearing devices; hold a workshop with additional experts and members of audiology organizations to coincide with a national professional conference; development of a State of Access/Research Agenda Report.

Project Collaborators will include the University of Arizona, University of Miami, Mariposa Community Health Center, and San Juan Bosco Clinic.