(PP601) Hearing Status and Cognition in Gerontology Journals

Research has shown an association between hearing loss and cognitive impairment. Many researchers, especially those in gerontology or aging fields, administer screening tests to identify cognitive impairment in their participants. These tests usually require participants to hear and understand verbal questions. Previous research has shown that hearing loss has a negative impact on these cognitive screening test scores (e.g., Gaeta et al., 2019; Jorgensen et al., 2016). The purpose of this study was to review published literature in gerontology to determine if hearing loss is considered in research studies that involve the administration of a cognitive screening or test battery. It was hypothesized that most of these studies would not take hearing status into consideration.

A search was performed for articles from the 2020 issue that involved cognitive screenings and/or batteries from gerontology journals. The journals reviewed were: The Gerontologist, Journals of Gerontology Series A & Series B, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Research on Aging, Geriatrics, Age, Journal of Applied Gerontology, and BMC Geriatrics. The articles from the 2020 issue that involved any cognitive assessment were reviewed by utilizing keywords related to audiology and hearing status. The articles that involved any of these keywords were carefully read to determine if the study took hearing status into consideration when administering the cognitive assessment. The type of cognitive screeners and/or batteries, if hearing status was considered, if hearing was tested, participants’ hearing aid use, participants’ use of hearing assistive technologies, and acknowledgment of the impact of hearing loss were also recorded. 150 articles were downloaded and further evaluated from various journals in the 2020 issue. Additional journals are currently being reviewed for the 2021 issue, and data collection will be completed by February 2022.

The preliminary findings show that 30/150 (20%) consider hearing in the cognitive assessments administered in the research studies, and only 16 of those 30 articles used hearing loss as exclusionary criteria or took auditory measures such as hearing tests or utilize hearing aids into account.

Failure to account for hearing loss in cognitive screenings for these studies can lead to participants being identified or characterized incorrectly, and patients may be misdiagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or other neurological impairments (Volter et al., 2020; Gaeta et al., 2019). It is important to have early identification of hearing loss and cognitive decline so patients have timely access to proper treatment. Suggestions to account for hearing loss include a hearing screening or assessment and use of participants’ hearing aids or assistive technology.