Adults’ with hearing loss perceived listening ability in daily communication: protocol for a systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis

INTRODUCTION: Understanding how adults with hearing loss perceive their abilities when listening in daily communication situations is vital to understanding the functional listening challenges associated with hearing loss. The aim of this study is to explore how adults with hearing loss describe their own experiences of the processes, behaviours and components of listening in real-world communication through secondary analysis of published qualitative data. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic review and thematic meta-synthesis of qualitative research studies and qualitative components of mixed-methods studies will be conducted. Studies published in English will be identified through searching Medline, PsychInfo, Web of Science, Embase and Google Scholar databases from inception to November 2021. Handsearching of the included studies’ reference lists will be completed. Included articles will be assessed for methodological quality using the Critical Appraisal Skills checklist for qualitative studies. Thematic synthesis will proceed as follows: (1) line-by-line coding to label concepts present in the ‘results’ or ‘findings’ section(s) of the included studies; (2) grouping of similar codes into descriptive themes; (3) development of higher level analytic themes to develop a new interpretation of the included studies’ findings. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of QUALitative (CerQUAL) research approach will be used to establish the degree of confidence that may be placed in synthesis findings and results will be reported alongside the synthesis. Two reviewers will independently undertake screening for eligibility, data extraction and quality appraisal, analysis and GRADE-CERQual assessments. Discrepancies will be resolved through discussion. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: As secondary data analysis of the published literature, ethical approval is not required. The results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals, conference presentations and other research and clinical meetings. This protocol is registered with PROSPERO prospective database of systematic review. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020213389.