ePoster

Availability of information on artificial intelligence-enhanced hearing aids: A social media analysis

Joanie Ferland, Ariane Blouin, Matthieu J. Guitton, Andréanne Sharp
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Joanie Ferland, Ariane Blouin, Matthieu J. Guitton, Andréanne Sharp

Abstract

With the aging of the population, hearing loss represents a major concern of public health. Hearing aids are the main way to compensate for hearing loss, yet conventional signal treatment algorithms often fall short of providing an optimal performance in noisy situations. The raises of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is opening new avenues for more powerful hearing aids. However, information available for patients regarding AI-enhanced hearing aids are only scarce. Our aim here was to evaluate the availability of online information on artificial intelligence-enhanced hearing aids for patients, focusing on information available on social media. Using a holistic online resource mapping and content analysis strategy from three social media platforms (YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit), we explored the presence, type of information, availability, and actionability of information available for users. Our results demonstrate that: 1) some information regarding AI-enhanced hearing aids are indeed available online on social media, and 2) the material available on social media is mostly user-generated (and not primarily generated directly by the main hearing aids producing companies), however 3) the relevant information is extremely difficult to locate for users with a lower digital literacy (users less experienced in navigating through technology-based spaces), and 4) despite the amount of information available, there is still a clear paucity of information actually useable by uninformed patients.

Unique ID: fens-24/availability-information-artificial-17ec07b6