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Hearing loss and cognition in older Latino adults
Laura Coco1, Alonzo Mendoza2, Jenny Ortega1
1School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, College of Health and Human Services, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
Objectives:
Latino older adults experience a high burden of untreated hearing loss and are underrepresented in research on hearing-related cognitive aging. Because hearing loss is a leading potentially modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline, evaluating whether the association between hearing loss and cognitive performance differs by hearing aid use may clarify a plausible pathway for mitigating cognitive disadvantage in this population. The goal of this study was to examine whether the association between hearing loss and cognitive performance differs by hearing aid use among older Latino adults in the United States.
Methods:
In this cross-sectional study, 97 Latino adults aged 60-95 years (M = 75.8, SD = 8.5) completed pure-tone audiometry and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Hearing was measured by better-ear pure-tone average (PTA; 0.5-4 kHz). Multivariable linear regression examined MoCA as a function of PTA, hearing aid use, age, education, and sex, including a PTA × hearing aid interaction term.
Results:
Eighteen participants (19%) reported hearing aid use and had substantially poorer hearing than non-users (mean PTA 59.4 vs. 32.2 dB HL). In the fully adjusted model, the PTA × hearing aid interaction was statistically significant (B = 0.22, SE = 0.11, p = .049), indicating that the association between hearing and cognition differed by hearing aid status. Among non- hearing aid users, each 10-dB increase in PTA was associated with a 0.43-point lower MoCA score, whereas the corresponding slope among hearing aid users was +1.33 points per 10 dB.
Conclusions:
The association between hearing loss and cognitive screening performance differed by hearing aid status, although within-group estimates were imprecise and not statistically significant. These findings contribute to a limited body of evidence in Latino populations and underscore the need for larger studies with more hearing aid users and prospective longitudinal designs to clarify whether hearing aid use modifies hearing-cognition associations.
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