Jessica West
Duke University, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Hearing loss affects more than 44 million adults in the United States. It is linked to social isolation, depression and cognitive decline.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
- Topics
hearing loss
stigma
hearing aids
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2031
What they work on
- Measure perceived, experienced and internalized hearing loss stigma, plus anticipated stigma about hearing devices, in U.S. adults with hearing loss using a web-based survey of validated Lancet Commission scales.
- Conduct in-depth interviews with a subset of survey participants to learn how stigma shows up and influences decisions to seek and stay with hearing healthcare.
- Work with a community co-design team of people with hearing loss to analyze survey and interview findings and develop actionable, evidence-based stigma-reduction strategies.
More about the research
Yet most adults with hearing loss are never tested or treated. A major reason is stigma: shame or fear of judgment about having hearing loss or wearing a hearing aid. Few interventions exist to reduce this stigma.
Why it matters
Untreated hearing loss is tied to depression, isolation and dementia, and stigma keeps many adults from getting tested or using hearing aids. Understanding how this stigma works and co-designing strategies against it could lead to interventions that help more adults with hearing loss seek and stay in care.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jasleen Singh
University of Massachusetts, MA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Develop HearEase, an interactive mobile health decision aid that guides potential buyers through deciding whether they are suitable users of an over-the-counter hearing aid before they purchase one.
Marcia Hay-McCutcheon
University of Alabama, AL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine an effective way to train pharmacy technicians in rural Alabama and Mississippi pharmacies to provide over-the-counter hearing aids, using a stepped-wedge clinical trial in which four groups start training at staggered times.
Esther Oh
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Medicine & Clinical Research
Refine a hearing care intervention for neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia by consulting clinical experts and end users, aligning it with theoretical frameworks and the latest evidence, and adapting it for delivery in settings including the home.
The school
Duke University: 61 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 417 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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