A Preliminary Study On The Characteristic Changes Of Audiology In The Elderly With Cognitive Impairment

To explore the characteristics of audiological changes in the elderly with cognitive impairment and analyze the correlation and possible mechanism between cognitive function and auditory function in the elderly.Our study included 78 elderly participants who underwent pure tone audiometry and Quick speech-in-noise test due to hearing loss in our hospital from October 2018 to April 2020.Among them,45 were males,23 were females,aged 60-95 years old.According to the score of mini-mental state examination,all participants were divided into the cognitive impaired group and the non cognitive impaired group.All participants finished a pure tone audiometry test(PTA),Mandarin quick speech-in-noise test(M-Quick SIN)and cognitive assessment,using SNR loss value(signal-to-noise ratio loss)as speech recognition ability,the pure-tone average hearing threshold of 0.5,1,2,4 k Hz(PTA),MMSE score and signal-to-noise ratio loss(SNR loss)were obtained.Comparing different cognitive status of the elderly in degree of hearing loss and the degree of SNR loss.Comparing the differences in hearing thresholds at125,250,500,1000,2000,4000 and 8000 Hz and SNR loss among the elderly with different cognitive states.Among the 78 elderly patients,33 had cognitive impairment(42.31%).(1)There were 25 cases(75.76%)with SNR loss in the cognitive impaired group,and the degree of SNR loss was mainly moderate;There were 36 cases(80.00%)with SNR loss in the no cognitive impaired group,and the degree of SNR loss was mainly mild.(2)The average hearing threshold of the elderly in the cognitive impaired group at frequencies of 125,250,500 and 1000Hz(25.61±13.74,25.15±14.87,31.21±18.03 and 37.12±18.03)d BHL was higher than that of the no cognitive impaired group(22.67±9.63,20.33±11.84,25.33±13.46,30.56±13.62)d BHL,and the difference was not statistically significant in the frequency of 2000,4000 and 8000 Hz.We can preliminarily conclude that the SNR loss of the elderly with cognitive impairment is heavier than that of the elderly with no cognitive impairment,the audiological characteristics of the elderly with cognitive impairment showed mainly low and middle frequency hearing loss.In general,cognitive function is correlated with auditory function in the elderly.The elderly with cognitive impairment have higher average hearing threshold and lower ability of speech comprehension under noise.