Development of the Hearing Attitudes in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (HARQ)

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Abstract
A questionnaire devised by Brooks to measure attitudes towards hearing impairment and provision of a hearing aid in older people was factor analysed and subsequently enlarged and modified into a new 40 item self-report scale. The Hearing Attitudes in Rehabilitation Questionnaire (HARQ) assesses three attitudes towards hearing impairment (personal distress/inadequacy, hearing loss stigma and minimization of loss) and four attitudes towards provision of a hearing aid (hearing aid stigma, aid-not-wanted, pressure to be assessed and positive expectation). Scale development, reliability and other psychometric properties are reported. Potential uses of the scale include identification of patients who may require counselling, evaluation of audiological rehabilitation and further empirical investigations of attitudes in this area.