Table 1

Data collection schedule Data are collected approximately 3 months posthearing aid fitting (baseline); at each ACE session 1–5 for the intervention arm and at a time equivalent to ACE week 5 for the treatment-as-usual arm; and approximately 6 months posthearing aid fitting

Study period	Recruitment	Allocation	Postallocation
Time point	Baseline	0	ACE week 1	ACE week 2	ACE week 3	ACE week 4	ACE week 5	6 months
Recruitment
Eligibility	•
Informed consent	•
Optional qualitative study consent	•
Allocation		•
Assessments
Demographics	•
IOI-HA	•						•	•
SAC	•							•
EQ-5D-5L	•							•
SF-36	•							•
Resource use	•							•
IOI-AI*							•	•
ACE participant attendance*			•	•	•	•	•
ACE SO attendance~			•	•	•	•	•
IOI-AI-SO*†							•	•
IOI-HA-SO†	•						•	•
SOS-HEAR†	•						•	•
Acceptability questionnaire							•
Qualitative interviews (participant and SO)							•
Qualitative interviews (audiologists)								•

*ACE arm only.
† Significant others only.
ACE, Active Communication Education; IOI-AI, International Outcomes Inventory for Alternative Interventions; IOI-HA, International Outcomes Inventory for Hearing Aids; IOI-HA-SO, IOI for hearing aids: version for SO; SAC, Self-Assessment of Communication; SF-36, Short-Form 36; SO, significant others; SOS-HEAR, Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability.