FUN Study

Exploring the Bases of Fatigue in Children with Unilateral Hearing Loss

Latest news

September 2021    The Online Study has now closed. A big thank you to everyone who has taken part! We have now started analysing everyone’s responses so make sure to check back here for future updates!

If you missed out on taking part, don’t worry! The Qualitative Study is still up and running. If you would like to sign up, click 'TAKE PART' at the top of this webpage or click here.

April 2021    New study open! We have now launched the second phase of the FUN Study (The Qualitative FUN Study). This will include one on one interactive discussions about hearing loss and fatigue. This is open to children with hearing loss (aged 6-16), parents of children with hearing loss and clinicians.

March 2021    The FUN Study Team would like to say thank you to all who have completed the Online Study so far. Recruitment has been going well and we are looking forward to working with our new sites including Bradford Royal Infirmary, Derby Royal Hospital, Walsall Manor Hospital, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Great Ormond Street Hospital and Guy's and St Thomas'.

If you have completed the Study and know other families who might be interested in taking part, please share this study with them. If you have signed up and not yet completed the study, please know that we very much value your responses and it is important for us to recieve responses from both the parent and child.

We are also very close to launching our next study. This will include relaxed, interactive discussions with children with hearing loss, their parents, and clinicians who manage children with hearing loss. Check back here for more information coming soon!

October 2020    Welcome on board to Ropewalk House, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH)! Thank you to Paige Church and Karen Willis who will be handing out fliers to invite families to take part in the online study. .

September 2020    Thank you to all those who have took part in the online study so far, we’ve had a great response! The study is still open, and we are still looking for more children aged 6-16 with hearing loss to take part. .

August 2020    Good news! We have now received University Faculty Ethics Approval and have launched the online study . This study will help us to understand which questionnaires are the best at measuring fatigue in children with or without hearing loss. .

June 2020    We are really looking forward to launching our online study. We are just waiting for the Health Research Authority to accept our study and then we will be ready to go. You can take part if you are aged 6-16 or are a parent/guardian of a child aged 6-16. Check back in July for more updates!

About the FUN Study

Fatigue is a term used to describe an overall feeling of tiredness, lack of vigour, or lack of energy.

Children with a hearing loss have been shown to experience a greater level of daily-life fatigue compared to their normal hearing peers.

Preliminary findings have shown that children with hearing loss in just one ear (Unilateral Hearing Loss; UHL) also experience this increased level of fatigue. In fact, they show a similar level of fatigue to children with hearing loss in both ears (Bilateral Hearing Loss; BHL).

We would like to understand more about the fatigue experienced by children with hearing loss, why children with UHL experience fatigue and investigate some current and novel measures of fatigue.

The FUN study is split into different elements. If you are interested in taking part, please contact us by completing this form, and we will send you more information.

1) Qualitative Interviews: Discussions with children with UHL or BHL, their parents/guardians OR with clinicians who manage children with UHL or BHL to help us understand what fatigue is (currently open to recruitment).

2) Experimental: Children will take part in fun tasks that involve listening to and finding different sounds to help us understand why children experience fatigue (study due to open late 2021!).

3) Online: A series of online questionnaires to help us learn about how to measure fatigue (study now closed to recruitment). .

The FUN team

The FUN study is run from the Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Nottingham. This centre has an excellent track record in hearing research.

Get in touch

If you have any questions or ideas about the FUN Study we would love to hear from you.


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