What is it about?
This scoping review screened 1,752 studies and included 16 that analyzed online communities to gain insights on hearing aid (HA) and cochlear implant (CI) use. Three analytic approaches were identified—manual text coding, computational text analysis, and audiovisual content analysis—each offering distinct insights into patient narratives, sentiment patterns, and educational content. Online platforms were frequently used to share lived experiences, disseminate medical information, and provide peer support, highlighting their value for understanding HA and CI user perspectives.
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Why is it important?
This scoping review is timely as social media and online forums are increasingly shaping health decisions, yet their role in hearing healthcare remains underexplored. By systematically mapping how patient-generated content about hearing aids and cochlear implants has been studied across platforms and analytic approaches, this work provides the first unified framework for leveraging online communities as a credible source of patient insight. The findings can help clinicians, researchers, and device developers better understand real-world patient experiences, ultimately informing more patient-centered care, device design, and health communication strategies.
Perspectives
This work reflects a growing recognition that patients’ voices are no longer confined to the clinic or the survey instrument. As someone interested in patient-centered care, I find it especially compelling that online communities can reveal concerns, emotions, and decision-making factors that are rarely captured through traditional research methods. Mapping these approaches felt important not only to organize a fragmented literature but also to lower the barrier for clinicians and researchers who want to responsibly engage with patient-generated data. Ultimately, I see this work as a step toward bridging the gap between lived experience and clinical practice, and toward using digital spaces more thoughtfully to improve hearing healthcare.
Daniel Habib
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Leveraging Online Communities to Understand Patient Experiences With Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants: A Scoping Review, American Journal of Audiology, January 2026, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2025_aja-25-00167.
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