---
title: "The Adoption of DTC Hearing Aids: Using the COM-B Model to Understand Why Accessibility and Affordability are not Enough"
description: "ADA offers programming and support to audiologists and students who are or who desire to be autonomous practitioners in the field of Audiology."
url: "https://www.audiologist.org/resources/educate/audacity-archive/item/the-adoption-of-dtc-hearing-aids-using-the-com-b-model-to-understand-why-accessibility-and-affordability-are-not-enough"
date: "2026-06-26T21:39:15+00:00"
language: "en-GB"
---

#  The Adoption of DTC Hearing Aids: Using the COM-B Model to Understand Why Accessibility and Affordability are not Enough

**Presentation Date:** 16 October 2020

**Duration:** 0:35:34

**Return to:** [AuDacity Archive](https://www.audiologist.org/audacity-archive)

Behavior change is central to medical and public health interventions, such as the use of hearing protection and the adoption of hearing aids. The COM-B Model provides a simple and useful framework to help us understand relationships among capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM), how they influence each other, and their effect on health behavior (B). This session will examine direct-to-consumer (DTC) hearing aids, widely embraced by policymakers as a panacea for increasing hearing aid adoption through improved accessibility and affordability. We will use the COM-B Model to demonstrate that these are only two of several factors that affect consumer behavior in a meaningful way. We will discuss additional influential motivational and behavioral factors that must be addressed to increase demand for hearing health care services and hearing aid adoption among consumers.

---

**Speaker:** Brent Edwards, Ph.D.

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