Hearing Screening in Older Adults in Primary Care Clinics: How the Effects of Setting and Provider Encouragement Differ by Patient Sex and Race

Abstract

Objectives: Few studies have examined how patient sex or race influence hearing healthcare, which was our study purpose.

Design: We performed a secondary analysis using data from a pragmatic clinical trial that examined the effect of provider encouragement (yes/no) or setting (at-home/clinic) for older adults to follow through with routine hearing screening in primary care and the hearing healthcare pathway. Three protocols were compared: at-home screening without provider encouragement, at-home screening with provider encouragement, and in-clinic screening with provider encouragement.

Results: Poisson regression (n = 627) showed few differences by patient sex but showed that Black patients in the at-home protocols were less likely to schedule or complete a formal diagnostic evaluation after a failed screening compared with Black patients in the clinic setting and White patients in all groups. Black patients, regardless of provider encouragement, were less likely to schedule or complete a diagnostic evaluation compared with White patients.

Conclusions: Results suggest that in-clinic screenings may increase the use of hearing healthcare for Black patients.