Communication Challenges and Barriers to Hearing Care for Older Bilingual Latinx Adults

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Project Summary/Abstract The long-term objective of this program of research is to increase access to hearing health care for underserved older adults. The aims of this proposal focus on the hearing and communication needs of an older bilingual Latinx population. Aim 1 will focus on speech understanding in noisy backgrounds. We will investigate the impacts of age, hearing, cognitive processing, and bilingual language history on speech-in-noise performance. This aim includes lab-based and virtual test protocols that will measure speech understanding, nonspeech auditory processing, and nonverbal cognitive (i.e., executive function) processing skills. The results of these studies will improve our theoretical understanding of speech perception abilities for all older adults, while specifically increasing the knowledge base related to Spanish/English bilingual older adults. The investigations undertaken in Aim 2 will focus on assessing and defining the challenges associated with age, hearing loss, and bilingualism in every day communication. A mixed methods approach will be undertaken in Aim 2. One study will rely on ecological momentary assessment (EMA)—brief surveys sent via mobile device periodically throughout the day—to quantify the demand for use of both languages in a Latinx community of older adults within the broader context of a majority English-speaking environment. In addition, interviews with the EMA participants will add context to the survey questions related to communication and effort experienced in daily encounters. Finally, focus groups will explore issues related to aging and hearing loss, and their impact on social engagement for older bilingual Latinx adults. Importantly, we will seek to determine what the hearing and communication priorities are for this growing and underserved population of older adults. The knowledge generated regarding speech understanding and communication needs and priorities will be used in future grant applications to develop community-integrated service models that will better serve older adults.