Research investigations on the use or non-use of hearing aids in the smart cities

This study aims to explore factors influencing behavioral intention to adopt hearing aids among old adults in smart cities. It argues that trust is a moderator to influence the relationship between attitude, subjective norm and individual's behavioral intention in smart cities. This study tests hypotheses using a sample of 103 respondents from six smart cities in China. The results reveal that attitude is main factor influencing individual's behavioral intention. Subjective norm and trust are both not statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval in the model of multiple-regression. Interestingly, it finds that trust moderates the relationship between subjective norm and individual's behavioral intention. It means that the audiologists' advice can positively affect person's behavioral intention in smart cities. The findings imply that the Theory of Reasoned Action can be partially used to explain the person's behavioral intention in Chinese context. This study contributes to encourage old people to use smart hospitals to consult audiologists about hearing loss and hearing aids rehabilitation. Hence, hearing aids can improve their quality of life (QoL), which can be reflected by the improved standard of living, better access to treatments and also the positive sentiment about their life, including comfort, friendship, happiness and a closer connection to the society.