Abstract
Both cardiovascular disease risk and hearing impairment are associated with cognitive dysfunction. However, the combined influence of the 2 risk factors on cognition is not well characterized. To examine associations between hearing impairment, cardiovascular disease risk, and cognitive function. This population-based, prospective cohort, multisite cross-sectional analysis of baseline data collected between 2008 and 2011 as part of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos included 9623 Hispanic or Latino adults aged 45 to 74 years in New York, Chicago, Miami, and San Diego. Hearing impairment of at least mild severity was defined as the pure tone average of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz greater than 25 dB hearing level (dB HL) in the better ear. Our measure of cardiovascular disease risk was a latent class variable derived from body mass index, ankle-brachial index, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting blood glucose, and the Framingham Cardiovascular Risk score. Results on Brief-Spanish English Verbal Learning Test (episodic learning and memory), and Word Fluency (verbal fluency), and Digit Symbol Subtest (processing speed/executive functioning), and a cognitive composite of the mentioned tests (overall cognition). Participants (N = 9180) were 54.4% female and age 56.5 years on average. Hearing impairment was associated with poorer performance on all cognitive measures (global cognition: unstandardized β, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.16 to 0.07). Cardiovascular grouping (healthy, typical, high cardiovascular disease risk, and hyperglycemia) did not attenuate the associations between hearing impairment and cognition (global cognition: unstandardized β, -0.11; 95% CI, -0.15 to -0.06). However, cardiovascular grouping interacted with hearing impairment such that hyperglycemia in the context of hearing impairment exacerbated poor performance on learning and memory tasks (F3 = 3.70 and F3 = 2.92, respectively). The findings of this cohort study suggest that hearing impairment increases the likelihood that individuals with excessively high glucose perform poorly on learning and memory tasks. Further research is needed to specify the mechanisms by which cardiovascular disease risk and hearing impairment are collectively associated with cognition.
Highlights
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS This population-based, prospective cohort, multisite cross-sectional analysis of baseline data collected between 2008 and 2011 as part of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos included 9623 Hispanic or Latino adults aged 45 to 74 years in New York, Chicago, Miami, and San Diego
F orty-seven percent of US adults aged 65 years and older report some degree of memory impairment,[1] and an estimated 4.7 million people in this age group are living with Alzheimer disease.[2]
Most attention has been placed on managing cardiovascular disease risk (CVDR) factors.[4]
Summary
Study Participants The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) is a multisite (Bronx, Chicago, Miami, and San Diego), probability sampled, prospective cohort study of selfidentified Hispanic or Latino participants aged 18 to 74 years. Rationale, and implementation have been previously reported.[28,29] In this study, we examined the oversampled middle-aged and older adults (45-74 years) who underwent neurocognitive testing from 2008 to 2011. Of these participants (n = 9623), we excluded 290 participants owing to missing data on model covariates (see sociodemographic covariates section).
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