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Karger Publishers, Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 4(50), p. 394-400, 2021

DOI: 10.1159/000519291

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Peripheral Hearing Loss and Its Association with Cognition among Ethnic Chinese Older Adults

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Many studies on hearing loss (HL) and cognition are limited by subjective hearing assessments and verbally administered cognition tests, the majority of the document findings in Western populations. This study aimed to assess the association of HL with cognitive impairment among ethnic Chinese Singaporean older adults using visually presented cognitive tests. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The hearing of community-dwelling older adults was assessed using pure tone audiometry. Cognitive function was assessed using the Computerized Cambridge Cognitive Test Battery (CANTAB). Multiple regression analyses examined the association between hearing and cognitive function, adjusted for age, education, and gender. <b><i>Results:</i></b> HL (pure-tone average [PTA] of thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better ear, BE4PTA) was associated with reduced performance in delayed matching and multitasking tasks (β = −0.25, <i>p</i> = 0.019, and β = 0.02, <i>p</i> = 0.023, respectively). Moderate to severe HL was associated with reduced performance in delayed matching and verbal recall memory tasks (β = −10.6, <i>p</i> = 0.019, and β = −0.28, <i>p</i> = 0.042). High-frequency HL was associated with reduced performance in the spatial working memory task (β = 0.004, <i>p</i> = 0.022). All-frequency HL was associated with reduced performance in spatial working memory and multitasking (β = 0.01, <i>p</i> = 0.040, and β = 0.02, <i>p</i> = 0.048). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Similar to Western populations, HL among tonal language-speaking ethnic Chinese was associated with worse performance in tasks requiring working memory and executive function.