Hearing Loss, Not Tinnitus, Predicts Cognitive Performance in Hispanic/Latino Adults

Despite growing evidence linking sensory impairment and cognition, the role of tinnitus in cognitive aging remains unclear, particularly in Hispanic/Latino adults who have been historically underrepresented in this research. Our goal was to examine the associations among tinnitus, hearing loss, and cognitive performance in a large cohort of Hispanic/Latino adults and to determine whether tinnitus contributes additional cognitive risk beyond that associated with hearing loss.

This cross-sectional study used data from the publicly available Study of Latinos cohort, which includes audiometric assessments, tinnitus history, sociodemographic information, and cognitive testing for 12,647 participants aged 45-75 years from San Diego, Chicago, Miami, and the Bronx. After applying the inclusion criteria and excluding participants with missing data, the final analytic sample comprised 6,536 adults. Multivariable generalized linear models were used to evaluate the independent and interactive associations of tinnitus and hearing loss with global and domain-specific cognitive performance, adjusting for demographic and health-related covariates.

Hearing loss was independently associated with a lower global cognitive score, even after adjusting for demographic and health factors (Cohen's d ≈ -0.12, p < .001), a modest but statistically meaningful effect at the population level. In domain-specific analyses of cognition, hearing loss was selectively associated with poorer episodic memory performance (Cohen's d ≈ 0.063, p = .017), reflecting a small effect, but was not associated with verbal learning, executive control, or working memory. Tinnitus showed no independent association, nor did the interaction of hearing loss with tinnitus.

Our findings underscore hearing loss as an important correlate of cognitive health in aging Hispanic/Latino adults and indicate that comorbid tinnitus does not add to the cognitive risk posed by hearing loss.

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.34845576.