‘The worse my hearing got, the less sociable I got’: a qualitative study of patient and professional views of the management of social isolation and hearing loss

Abstract Background Social isolation is a major consequence of hearing loss. It includes an objective component (e.g. small social network) and subjective loneliness). Objective To examine the perspectives key stakeholders regarding (i) relationship between loss (ii) interventions to address isolation. Design A phenomenological qualitative study. Setting UK research centre with role engage patients clinicians. Participants Hearing healthcare professionals (n = 7) adults 6) were recruited via maximum variation sampling. Methods Individual 3) group semi-structured interviews conducted. Inductive thematic analysis was performed. Results Five themes identified. Theme 1 (experience loss): can cause people feel disconnected at events or cease attending them. 2 (complexity various causes loss, retirement, comorbidities) are difficult disentangle. 3 (downstream effects and/or lead mental health problems, stigmatisation, fatigue unemployment. 4 (preferred components intervention): intervention should be patient-led patient-centred take place in community. 5 (challenges implementing barriers include lack time, training continuity. Conclusion This study demonstrated that arising from substantial, complex problem provided novel insights on this issue.