Social Perceptions of Pediatric Hearing Aids

Objectives To determine whether hearing aid (HA) use affects social perceptions of general public adults and age‐matched peers and if so, determine if effects are modulated by lack of societal representation of pediatric HAs. Methods A 10‐year‐old boy was presented in six photographic conditions with and without HAs and eyeglasses (a worn sensory aid with wider societal representation). HAs were presented in neutral skin tone and bright blue colors. Photographic conditions were embedded into web‐based surveys with visual analog scales to capture social perceptions data and sourced to 206 adults (age 18–65) and 202 peers (age 10) with demographic characteristics representative of the general US population. Mean differences in scores for each condition compared to control images were computed using two‐tailed t‐tests. Results In both adult and child respondents, HAs were associated with decreased athleticism, confidence, health, leadership, and popularity. Glasses were associated with decreased athleticism and popularity but increased intelligence, overall success, and in the child respondents, friendliness. When worn in combination, the beneficial effects of glasses were mitigated by brightly colored but not neutrally colored HAs. Conclusion Negative effects of pediatric HAs on social perceptions may be influenced by poor societal representation of HAs. These results suggest that greater representation of pediatric HAs is necessary to make society more inclusive for children with hearing loss. Level of Evidence 4 Laryngoscope, 131:E2387–E2392, 2021