Impact of Hearing Loss on Social Circle Quality of Life

Introduction: Hearing loss (HL) is one of the leading causes of disability globally and is implicated in decreased quality of life (QoL) for affected patients through impedance in spoken language, increased risk of cognitive decline, and social isolation. However, these difficulties in communication may extend to those in patients’ social circles – including spouses, children, relatives, and friends. Our aim was to qualitatively evaluate QoL within the social circle of patients with HL and identify aspects impacted by HL.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative focus group study of the social circle of patients with HL referred to our tertiary hospital. Focus groups were conducted remotely from Feb 2022 to Jan 2023. De-identified transcripts of sessions were thematically coded using grounded theory analysis. Major themes were synthesized into a framework to characterize how patients’ HL impacted their social circles’ QoL.

Results: We conducted focus groups with 11 social circle members of patients with HL. Patient HL types included sensorineural (82%) and mixed (18%), ranging from moderately severe to profound in severity, and symmetric (55%) vs. asymmetric (45%) in laterality. Emerging themes of the impact of HL on the social circle revealed distinct experiences before versus after clinical evaluation across five spheres: communicative, relational, experiential, healthcare, and sociocultural. The social circle is often first to identify HL and encourage patients to seek intervention. They further shoulder the burden of developing new communication norms, assuming additional responsibilities, and enduring changes to the interpersonal relationship with their loved one.

Conclusions: HL poses complex emotional challenges and significant impact on QoL for patients’ social circles. We highlight the importance of understanding the caregiver’s experience to target interventions addressing both social circle and patient QoL. As there are no reliable metrics to assess QoL and situationally specific burdens within this population, this data may be used to develop validated methods of evaluating social circle burden in HL.