Improving the lives of older adults with hearing loss: Developing a self-report measure of effortful listening to guide clinical practice

Hearing loss is the most prevalent sensory deficit. In the UK, more than 10 million adults have a hearing loss. Because it is often associated with old age and the size of the older population is growing, it is predicted that there will be more than 14 million people with a hearing loss by 2030. In most cases of adult hearing loss, the sensory damage is permanent and primarily managed via the prescription and fitting of hearing aids. Despite the improvement afforded by hearing aids, there is at least one aspect of listening that hearing aids have a limited effect on improving, namely the effort required to achieve listening success i.e. listening effort. Listening effort is high when listening is challenging and cognitively demanding. This occurs in many situations including in connection with hearing loss. It is, therefore, surprising that so little importance has been attached to quantifying and reducing listening effort when adults with hearing loss are assessed and managed. A self-report questionnaire on listening effort might speed up assessment and outcome monitoring. However, no self-report questionnaire currently exists that explores the effort required to listen.

Our group, the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD), is the premier UK centre for hearing loss research, education and service provision. We have a well-established track-record of improving the lives of individuals with hearing loss, and have over recent years published a number of high impact research studies on listening effort in internationally-leading journals. We now want to develop and validate a patient-focused measure of listening effort that will ensure a comprehensive assessment of hearing difficulty and quantify the benefit of treatment in a PhD project that will be conducted in three phases: (1) a review of the literature, (2) the creation of the new questionnaire, and (3) its validation.

You will receive training in: (i) the research process, and (iI) specific training in the development of self-report questionnaires

Weblink to the research group: www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/audiologyanddeafness


This PhD will suit you if you have a background in audiology, hearing science, psychology, neuroscience, medical/clinical science or related discipline. Ideally, you with have a first class undergraduate degree and a postgraduate qualification that included a research project e.g., MSc or MRes. Evidence of research output (e.g., peer-reviewed publication, newsletter article, conference presentation) would be advantageous.

The project is suitable if you require excellent research training, in a stimulating and active environment, in order to become an independent, international researcher. It will also be suitable to you if you are a health professional whose career aspirations involve a combination of research with clinical activities.

Good writing skills will be essential.