# Randomized Trial of Telehealth vs Conventional Hearing Care Delivery in the ACHIEVE Study

> **NIH NIH R01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $621,177

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Hearing loss is a chronic condition prevalent in two-thirds of adults >70 years and may be a potentially
modifiable risk factor for adverse health outcomes including dementia. However, uptake and sustained use of
hearing aids in adults is low, with <20% of older adults with hearing loss reporting use, among whom up to 30-
40% may discontinue hearing aid use over time. These limitations may stem in part from the reliance of the
current best-practice model of hearing healthcare (HHC) on clinic-based visits that requires multiple in-person
sessions between an audiologist and a patient for all ongoing technical and self-management support services.
Incorporation of asynchronous and synchronous telehealth into HHC to complement clinic-based visits would
allow for routine troubleshooting of communication challenges, hearing aid technical issues, and reinforcement
of self-management support strategies. Determining if a HHC model that incorporates audiological telehealth
improves long-term hearing aid use and other patient-centered outcome measures has direct implications for
both future clinical care standards and ongoing Medicare legislative bills pertaining to HHC coverage. Our
interdisciplinary consortium of investigators has a singular opportunity to evaluate the potential benefits of a
telehealth audiology model on long-term hearing aid use and other outcomes in a large cohort of racially-
diverse, community-dwelling older adults who are existing hearing aid users. In the ongoing Aging & Cognitive
Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) randomized trial, we recruited 977 adults ages 70-84 with untreated
mild-to-moderate hearing loss from January 2018 to October 2019 who were randomized 1:1 to a hearing
intervention (i.e., conventional clinic-based delivery of hearing services and technologies) versus a successful
aging education control intervention. Participants are now being followed for 3 years post-randomization at the
four ACHIEVE field sites, and the goal of this NIA-funded multisite trial (R01AG055426) is to determine if
hearing loss treatment versus an aging education control intervention reduces cognitive decline. From 2021-
2022, as participants in the hearing intervention group (n=490) complete their pre-specified three years of
follow-up in the ACHIEVE trial, we propose to recruit these existing hearing aid users and randomize them to
receive either continued conventional clinic-based delivery of hearing care services or a model that
incorporates telehealth. At 1 year post-randomization, the primary outcome (hours of hearing aid use) will be
contrasted between the two groups, and participants in the conventional HHC arm will then cross-over and
also receive telehealth HHC. All participants will continue to be followed for 2 years post-randomization. Aim 1:
To compare the effect of the telehealth versus conventional HHC delivery model on hours of hearing aid use
(primary outcome) and other patient-centered hearing and commu...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10462590
- **Project number:** 5R01DC019408-02
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** FRANK R LIN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $621,177
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10462590

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10462590, Randomized Trial of Telehealth vs Conventional Hearing Care Delivery in the ACHIEVE Study (5R01DC019408-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10462590. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*