Marcia Hay-McCutcheon
University of Alabama, AL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Hearing loss is linked to depression, social isolation, cognitive decline and other health problems. Yet in many rural and persistently poor areas, people cannot reach an audiologist (a hearing care specialist) or an ear, nose and throat doctor.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
hearing loss
audiology
over-the-counter hearing aids
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- 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.
- Measure how satisfied rural adults with hearing loss are with care from trained pharmacy technicians, and how well their over-the-counter hearing aids perform at first.
- Conduct a community-based participatory needs assessment to define the hearing healthcare needs of adults without access to care in West Central and South Alabama.
- Develop a training program in aural rehabilitation for community health advisors, then test whether this communication coaching increases benefit from and use of personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) and quality of life.
- Test whether PSAPs, low-cost listening devices, reduce hearing handicap and improve speech perception in underserved adults, using a randomized group treatment trial delivered partly through a mobile audiology clinic.
More about the research
Rural populations also tend to be older and to have lower incomes, and hearing loss becomes more common with age. This research asks how to bring affordable hearing care to adults in the rural South who have mild-to-moderate hearing loss. It tests new ways of delivering care through trusted community members and local pharmacies.
Why it matters
Adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss in rural Alabama, Mississippi and similar regions often have no affordable hearing care. Training pharmacy technicians and community health advisors could create new ways to deliver care using over-the-counter hearing aids and low-cost amplifiers. These models may expand access and affordability and help reduce the isolation, depression and cognitive effects tied to untreated hearing loss.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Increasing Access to Hearing Healthcare: An Assessment of Pharmacy Technician Educational Training for the Provision of Over-the-Counter Hearing Aids in Rural Alabama and Mississippi Pharmacies
NIH · Sep 2024 – Aug 2027
Improving Access and Affordability of Adult Hearing Healthcare: Effectiveness of Community-based Interventions in West Central and South Alabama
NIH · Jan 2021 – Dec 2026
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.
Jessica West
Duke University, NC·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
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.
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
University of Alabama: 22 labs on PI Pages, $221M a year on research, 235 research doctorates a year.
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