Discussing Hearing Aid Rehabilitation at the Hearing Clinic: Patient Involvement in Deciding upon the Need for a Hearing Aid

The quality of interaction between hearing health professionals and patients is one prominent, yet under-studied explanation for the low adherence in acquiring and using a hearing aid. This study describes two different ways of introducing hearing aid to the patients at their first visits at the hearing clinic: an inquiry asking patients opinion followed by offer, and an expert evaluation of the necessity of a hearing aid; and shows two different trajectories ensuing from these introductions. The trajectories represent two extreme ends of a continuum of practices of starting a discussion about hearing aid rehabilitation, in terms of how these practices affect patient participation in decision-making. The analysis shows how granting different degrees of deontic and epistemic rights to professionals and patients has different consequences with regard to the activity of reaching shared understanding on the treatment. The data consist of 17 video-recorded encounters at the hearing clinic. The method used is conversation analysis.