Abstract
BackgroundHearing impairment is a prevalent and chronic condition in older people. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive function and hearing impairment in a Japanese population.MethodsA pure-tone average (0.5-2.0 kHz) was used to evaluate hearing impairment in 846 participants of the Iwaki Health Promotion Project who were aged at least 50 years old (310 men and 536 women). We also administered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies for Depression (CES-D) scale, Starkstein's apathy scale (AS) and the Short Form Health Survey Version 2 (SF-36v2). A multiple linear regression analysis assessed the association between hearing impairment and mental correlates.ResultsThe overall prevalence of hearing impairment in this study population was 37.7%. The participants with hearing impairment were older and less educated compared to those with no hearing problems. We observed significant differences in the MMSE and AS scores between the mild/moderate to severe groups versus the non-impaired group. After adjusting for age, gender and amount of education, hearing impairment was significantly associated with MMSE and AS scores, but not with CES-D scores. Hearing impairment was significantly related to the social functioning (SF) and role emotional (RE) scores of the SF-36v2.ConclusionsHearing impairment is common among older people and is associated with cognitive impairment, apathy and a poor health-related quality of life. Screening for and correcting hearing impairments might improve the quality of life and functional status of older patients.
Highlights
Age-related hearing impairment is a prevalent yet under-recognized health issue [1,2]
We divided the participants into three groups according to their level of hearing impairment thresholds: none (< 25 dB), n = 527; mild (25-39 dB), n = 265; and moderate to severe (> 39 dB), n = 54
In this study, hearing impairment was significantly associated with adjusted scores of SF-36v2 standardized scores in social functioning (SF) and role emotional (RE) domains. These results suggest that people with hearing impairment might experience more negative emotional reaction and social functioning limitations compared to participants without hearing problems
Summary
Age-related hearing impairment is a prevalent yet under-recognized health issue [1,2]. Previous studies [2,3,4] have reported a high prevalence of hearing impairment (between 35% and 45%) among older people. Hearing impairment is associated with decreased physical functioning, psychosocial impairments [5], increased social isolation [6], health condition [7] and healthrelated quality of life [8,9]. The coexistence of apathy, defined as reduced motivation or lack of initiative and motivation, among patients with late-onset depression, might explain these differences [15,16]. Several reports have mentioned that hearing impairment may increase the risk of depression, data are lacking regarding the relationship between hearing impairment and apathy. This study investigated the relationship between cognitive function and hearing impairment in a Japanese population
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