Factors related to the performance of elderly people in temporal ordering tests

To describe the performance of elderly individuals in Pitch Pattern Sequence (PPS) and Duration Pattern Sequence (DPS) tests and research related factors.

An observational, cross-sectional study conducted with elderly people aged 60 to 79 years. The participants underwent cognitive screening tests, interviews containing socio-demographic data and general health, as well as audiologic evaluation and temporal auditory processing (PPS and DPS) evaluation tests. A descriptive analysis of the association between the performance in temporal processing and the variables gender, age, level of education and audiometric alterations was conducted through multiple linear regression.

86 elderly people participated in the study, most of them female, with ages between 60 and 69. Male participants performed better in both tests as well as the participants with higher education, whereas no difference in performance was observed across the different age ranges. In the DPS, the participants with auditory alteration performed worse in relation to the ones with average frequencies of 0.5 to 4 kHz.

The male gender and higher level of education were associated with better results in the temporal ordering tests, whereas auditory alteration was associated with worse performance only in the pitch pattern sequence test.