Newswise, May 12, 2016— A study conducted by researchers at
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) found that older adults who used a
hearing aid performed significantly better on cognitive tests than those who
did not use a hearing aid, despite having poorer hearing.
The study was published online inthe American Journal of
Geriatric Psychiatry.
The researchers also found that cognitive function was
directly related to hearing ability in participants who did not use a hearing
aid.
More than half of adults over age 75 have hearing loss, yet
less than 15 percent of the hearing impaired use a hearing aid device.
Previous studies have shown that the hearing-impaired elderly
have a higher incidence of fall- and accident-related death, social isolation,
and dementia than those without hearing loss. Studies have also demonstrated
that hearing aid use can improve the social, functional, and emotional
consequences of hearing loss.
“We know that hearing aids can keep older adults with hearing
loss more socially engaged by providing an important bridge to the outside
world,” said Anil K. Lalwani, MD, professor of otolaryngology/head and neck
surgery at CUMC and otolaryngologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/CUMC and
NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital.
“In this study, we wanted to determine if they could also slow
the effects of aging on cognitive function.”
The study included 100 adults with hearing loss between the
ages of 80 and 99. Of the participants, 34 regularly used a hearing aid.
Audiometry tests were performed to measure the degree of hearing loss.
Cognitive function was evaluated by the Mini-Mental State
Examination (MMSE), in which participants give vocal responses to verbal
commands. Executive function was also assessed with the Trail Making Test, Part
B (TMT-B), which does not have a verbal or auditory component.
Hearing aid users, who had worse hearing than non-users,
performed significantly (1.9 points) better on the MMSE. Among non-users,
participants with more hearing loss also had lower MMSE scores than those with
better hearing.
Although hearing aid users performed better than non-users on
the TMT-B, the difference was not statistically significant. In addition, TMT-B
scores were not correlated with hearing level.
“Our study suggests that using a hearing aid may offer a
simple, yet important, way to prevent or slow the development of dementia by
keeping adults with hearing loss engaged in conversation and communication,”
said Dr. Lalwani.
The study is titled, “Hearing Aid Use Is Associated with
Better Mini-Mental State Exam Performance.” The other contributors are: Z.
Jason Qian, MS, Kapil Wattamwar, BS, Francesco F. Caruana, Jenna Otter, MD,
Matthew J. Leskowitz, MD, Barbara Siedlecki, MS, RN, and Jaclyn B. Spitzer,
PhD.
The researchers declare no
financial or other conflicts of interest.
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