Objectives:The aims of this study were to a) explore the impact of hearing impairment on people living with dementia in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and b) investigate management of hearing impairment for this population.Methods: A descriptive qualitative approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews, was conducted with 23 participants across four stakeholder groups (audiologists, care staff, family members and individuals with dementia and hearing impairment living in RACFs).Results: Thematic analysis revealed an overarching theme of "different priorities for managing hearing impairment" that emerged from the data. Audiologists and care staff prioritised different practices for managing hearing impairment: audiologists emphasised hearing aids and care staff emphasised communication strategies. Care staff also identified that current management of hearing impairment was sub-optimal as they do not prioritise managing it. Conclusions:Residents with dementia and hearing impairment living in RACFs are not receiving optimal hearing management. Further research is required to understand the factors that influence this. Clinical implications:Changes in practices of both care staff and audiologists are required to improve hearing impairment management for this population.

Objectives: Social isolation and loneliness are interrelated but independent constructs that threaten healthy aging and well-being and are thought to be associated with hearing loss. Our aim was to review the empirical studies that have examined the association between hearing loss and social isolation and/ or loneliness to highlight future research needs. Design: Scoping review. Study sample: Three electronic databases were searched combining key terms of "hearing loss", "hearing impairment" and "deaf à " with "social isolation" or "loneliness", yielding an initial result of 939 articles. After removing duplicate articles, abstract screening and full-text review, 57 original articles met our inclusion criteria. Results: Studies were diverse in terms of methodology with the most common type of study being studies that have explored the relationship between hearing loss and social isolation/loneliness from large population-based datasets. Only eight studies were intervention studies and of these, only one specifically explored the outcomes of hearing aids (HAs) on social isolation/loneliness. Conclusions: Further research is warranted to examine the influence that hearing interventions, in particular HAs, have on social isolation and/or loneliness, with a specific need to include people who identify as being socially isolated and/or lonely at baseline.

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