title: Hearing aid fitting in older persons with hearing impairment: the influence of cognitive function, age, and hearing loss on hearing aid benefit.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association of cognitive function, age, and hearing loss with clinically assessed hearing aid benefit in older hearing-impaired persons.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hearing aid benefit was assessed using objective measures regarding speech recognition in quiet and noisy environments as well as a subjective measure reflecting everyday situations captured using a standardized questionnaire. A broad range of general cognitive functions such as attention, memory, and intelligence were determined using different neuropsychological tests. Linear regression analyses were conducted with the outcome of the neuropsychological tests as well as age and hearing loss as independent variables and the benefit measures as dependent variables. Thirty experienced older hearing aid users with typical age-related hearing impairment participated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most of the benefit measures revealed that the participants obtained significant improvement with their hearing aids. Regression models showed a significant relationship between a fluid intelligence measure and objective hearing aid benefit. When individual hearing thresholds were considered as an additional independent variable, hearing loss was the only significant contributor to the benefit models. Lower cognitive capacity - as determined by the fluid intelligence measure - was significantly associated with greater hearing loss. Subjective benefit could not be predicted by any of the variables considered.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study does not give evidence that hearing aid benefit is critically associated with cognitive function in experienced hearing aid users. However, it was found that lower fluid intelligence scores were related to higher hearing thresholds. Since greater hearing loss was associated with a greater objective benefit, these results strongly support the advice of using hearing aids regardless of age and cognitive function to counter hearing loss and the adverse effects of age-related hearing impairment. Still, individual cognitive capacity might be relevant for hearing aid benefit during an initial phase of hearing aid provision if acclimatization has not yet taken place.
authors.affiliation: Jean Uhrmacher Institute for Clinical ENT-Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Meister
authors.affiliation: Jean Uhrmacher Institute for Clinical ENT-Research, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rählmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walger
authors.affiliation: Department of Othorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Margolf-Hackl
authors.affiliation: Department of Othorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kießling
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*
keywords: experience; fluid intelligence; working memory