The relationship between hearing loss and frailty in older adults at risk of cognitive decline: a cross-sectional study

Rong Tian ^1* Osvaldo Almeida ^1,2 Andrew H Ford ¹ Leon Flicker ^1,2 Nicola T Lautenschlager ^2,3,4 Suzanne Robinson ^5,6 Marshall Makate ⁷ Simone Pettigrew ⁸ Sin Huey Lee ⁹ Ina Dorsheimer ¹⁰ Jessica Yiannos ⁹ Libby Crawford ⁹ Dona M. P. Jayakody ^1,11,9

• ¹ Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
• ² Centre for Health and Ageing, School of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• ³ Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
• ⁴ Older Adult Mental Health Program, Royal Melbourne Hospital Mental Health Service, Parkville, Australia
• ⁵ Institute for Health Transformation, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin Univeristy, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
• ⁶ enAble Institute, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia
• ⁷ Department of Health Economics and Data Analytics, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
• ⁸ George Institute for Global Health, University of New South Wales, Newtown, New South Wales, Australia
• ⁹ Ear Science Institute Australia, Subiaco, Western Australia, Australia
• ¹⁰ Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• ¹¹ Ear Sciences Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Objectives: To investigate the association between hearing loss and frailty among a group of older community volunteers with mild cognitive impairment.Design: This study recruited 162 older community volunteers who have mild cognitive impairment and symmetric age-related hearing loss. Participants' hearing ability (including peripheral hearing, hearing handicap and central auditory processing) and frailty status were assessed and analysed. An independent t-test was conducted to compare hearing performance between frail and non-frail groups.Results: There were statistically significant differences between frail and non-frail groups for speech frequency hearing threshold, overall central auditory processing score and hearing handicap score, but not for high frequency hearing threshold.Frail individuals exhibit poorer performance in peripheral and central hearing assessments, as well as in self-reported hearing handicap. Future randomised controlled trials are necessary to find out if the correction of hearing loss decreases the proportion of people affected by frailty in later life.