m-Health Applications for Hearing Loss: A Scoping Review

Abstract

BackgroundMobile health (mHealth) has the potential to improve access and uptake of health services globally. Non-communicable diseases like hearing loss have seen increasing use of mHealth approaches to improve access, scalability, penetration, quality, and convenience of health services. This scoping review describes published research in mHealth supported hearing healthcare services across the continuum of care. MethodsA search on Scopus, MEDLINE (PubMed), and Web of Science for articles published up to 2 July 2021 was conducted. Articles in which mHealth was used across a continuum of care where the primary focus was hearing healthcare were included. A narrative synthesis was conducted. Results146 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were included in data extraction. High-income countries contributed 56% of articles, upper-middle countries 32%, lower-middle countries 8%, and low-income countries 4%. Articles identified included promotion (2%), screening (39%), diagnosis (35%), treatment (10%), and support (14%) for hearing loss. mHealth applications in high-income countries were more represented in diagnosis (62% vs 38%), treatment (67% vs 33%) and support (82% vs 18%) compared to low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) except for screening (64% vs 36%). Few studies focussed on hearing health promotion across all income brackets. ConclusionmHealth supported hearing healthcare services are available across a continuum of care and various world regions, although more prevalent in high-income countries. Although great potential is demonstrated, implementation evaluations are important to further validate its widespread use and potential to make services for hearing loss more accessible in LMICs.

Community-based adult hearing care provided by community healthcare workers using mHealth technologies

“…CHWs have also successfully fit adults and children with hearing aids [ 20 , 21 ]. However, there is limited evidence of CHWs providing end-to-end hearing care supported by mHealth technologies [ 22 ].…”

mHealth-Supported Hearing Health Training for Early Childhood Development Practitioners: An Intervention Study

“…Furthermore, the provision of training material via an instant-messaging application has important advantages, including cost-effective administration of an intervention program, efficient management, and easy distribution across geographic boundaries [ 28 , 41 , 42 ]. This study was the first of its kind to evaluate the use of an mHealth training program to support knowledge and awareness of hearing health [ 20 ]. An important strength of this study was its ecological validity, with broad inclusion criteria representative of community ECD centres and schools in low-income settings.…”

“…mHealth refers to the utilization of mobile phones, wireless devices, and digital assistants to improve healthcare delivery [ 18 , 19 ]. With the implementation of mHealth, barriers, including limited availability of hearing health professionals, transportation, time, expenses, and resource availability, can be addressed [ 20 ]. Utilizing mHealth to educate and promote hearing health can enhance the capabilities of ECD practitioners to substantially reduce the morbidity related to ear and health disorders [ 21 , 22 ].…”

“…Innovative mHealth approaches are rapidly becoming important for public health care in LMICs, providing tools for awareness, health promotion campaigns, and services that are accessible and can scale rapidly [ 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. In addition, the ubiquity of mobile phones and increased internet access have created an opportunity to optimize the implementation of mHealth services and potentially increase the efficiency of various service-delivery cadres [ 18 , 19 , 24 ].…”

“…Hearing health training and promotion through mHealth has the potential to support preventative hearing healthcare services for young children from underserved populations, but there is a lack of evidence on hearing health promotion through mHealth [ 20 , 32 ]. A recent scoping review by Frisby and colleagues [ 18 ] on mHealth and hearing loss identified only three papers reporting hearing health promotion, all published recently in 2021.…”