Abstract
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) has been considered as a promising modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia. Nonetheless, it is still unclear whether age-related hearing loss associates with neurodegenerative biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Participants with ARHL were selected from the established Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database. In multivariable models, the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of ARHL with CSF β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau measurements, brain Aβ load, and cortical structural measures were explored. ARHL was associated with higher CSF levels of tau (p < 0.001) or ptau181 (p < 0.05) at baseline as well as faster elevation rates of these two types of biomarkers (p < 0.05). Although the baseline volume/thickness of hippocampus (p < 0.05) and entorhinal cortex (p < 0.0005) were higher in individuals with ARHL, these two regions (p < 0.01 for hippocampus, p < 0.05 for entorhinal cortex) displayed significantly accelerated atrophy in individuals with ARHL. No association of ARHL with CSF or brain Aβ levels was found. Subgroup analyses indicated that the above effects of ARHL were more significant in non-demented stage. Age-related hearing loss was associated with elevated cerebrospinal fluid tau levels and atrophy of entorhinal cortex.
Highlights
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and dementia are two important global health concerns [1, 2]
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measurements of Aβ42, tau, and ptau181 were available for 479 participants (67 healthy control (HC), 209 preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 93 mild cognitive decline (MCI) due to AD, and 110 dementia due to AD), of whom 60 had ARHL (Table 1)
When stratified by AD continuum group, as expected, CSF Aβ42 levels decreased and tau levels increased across groups from HC through preclinical AD and MCI to dementia
Summary
Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) and dementia are two important global health concerns [1, 2]. Besides the insufficient www.aging-us.com statistical power due to small sample size, their relationship might be further complicated by misclassification bias due to misdiagnosis, given that (1) AD was defined in previous observational studies mostly without pathological evidence, such as amyloid PET imaging or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers; (2) aged subjects with hearing loss (HL) might be more intellectually capable than what the cognitive tests suggest [6]. In recent AD criteria [7, 8], the levels of CSF Aβ1-42, tau, p-tau181, as well as PET imaging results have been established as core AD biomarkers to define the progressive stages in AD continuum, including preclinical AD, mild cognitive decline (MCI) due to AD, and dementia due to AD. We aimed to explore how ARHL can influence these neurodegenerative biomarkers in the Alzheimer’s continuum based on the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) database
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