Self-Reported Hearing Loss and Longitudinal Cognitive Function in a Cohort Enriched with Risk for Alzheimer's Disease.
BACKGROUND
Growing evidence suggests hearing loss is a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment and dementia, but few studies have examined its relationship to sub-clinical cognitive outcomes.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effect of self-reported hearing loss on longitudinal cognitive function in a risk-enriched cohort of clinically-unimpaired, late middle-aged adults.


METHODS
579 participants from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP) were included. Hearing status was determined via self-reported history of diagnosed hearing loss. Each participant with self-reported hearing loss was age- and sex-matched to two participants who never reported hearing loss using nearest-neighbor matching. Linear mixed-effects models were used to examine associations between self-reported hearing loss and age-related cognitive trajectories with covariates of sex, literacy, and ethnicity, person-level random intercepts and age-related slopes. Cognitive outcomes encompassed measures of speed and flexibility, visuospatial memory, and verbal fluency.


RESULTS
Participants with self-reported hearing loss exhibited significantly poorer performance on a speed and flexibility factor score and single test of psychomotor speed and executive function, relative to participants who never reported hearing loss. There was no association between self-reported hearing loss and visuospatial memory or verbal fluency. Longitudinally, self-reported hearing loss was associated with less rapid decline in speed and flexibility and no difference in rate of decline for any other cognitive measure.


CONCLUSION
Self-reported hearing loss was associated with poorer speed and flexibility but not with accelerated decline in any domain studied, contrary to previous findings. Further studies involving behavioral auditory measures in this cohort would clarify the robustness of these findings.
['Fields|Taylor N|TN|', 'Mueller|Kimberly D|KD|', 'Koscik|Rebecca L|RL|', 'Johnson|Sterling C|SC|', 'Okonkwo|Ozioma C|OC|', 'Litovsky|Ruth Y|RY|']
D000367:Age Factors D000368:Aged D003071:Cognition D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction D015331:Cohort Studies D056344:Executive Function D005260:Female D034381:Hearing Loss D006801:Humans D008137:Longitudinal Studies D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D011597:Psychomotor Performance D012306:Risk D057566:Self Report
hearing hearing loss cognition cognitive impairment executive function Alzheimer’s disease longitudinal studies