BACKGROUND Hearing impairment (HI) could be a risk factor for cognitive decline, but cognition could plausibly also affect psychoacoustic assessment of hearing with audiometry. We examined the temporal sequence of hearing and cognitive function among nondemented, community-dwelling older adults. METHODS Hearing and cognition were assessed between 2012 and 2015 and 2 years thereafter in 313 nondemented participants aged ≥60 years in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Poorer hearing was defined by pure-tone average of 0.5-4 kHz tones in the better-hearing ear. Cognitive measures with either visual or auditory inputs were Trail-making Test Part B; Digit Symbol Substitution Test; California Verbal Learning Test immediate recall, short delay, and long delay; Digit Span Forward/Backward; Benton Visual Retention Test; and Mini-Mental State Examination. We used linear regression models for cross-sectional associations at each timepoint and autoregressive, cross-lagged models to evaluate whether baseline hearing impairment (Time 1) predicted cognitive performance 2 years after baseline (Time 2) and vice versa. RESULTS Cross-sectionally, there were no associations between poorer hearing and cognitive performance. Longitudinally, poorer hearing was associated with declines in California Verbal Learning Test immediate (β = -0.073, SE = 0.032, p = .024), short-delayed (β = -0.134, SE = 0.043, p = .002), long-delayed (β = -0.080, SE = 0.032, p = .012) recall, and Digit Span Forward (β = -0.074, SE = 0.029, p = .011).) from Time 1 to Time 2. Cognitive performance at Time 1 did not predict change in hearing status at Time 2. CONCLUSIONS Audiometric hearing impairment predicted short-term cognitive declines in both California Verbal Learning Test and auditory stimuli for attention.

中文翻译：

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巴尔的摩老化纵向研究中听力障碍和认知的时间序列。

背景听力障碍 (HI) 可能是认知能力下降的危险因素，但认知也可能会影响听力的心理声学评估。我们检查了非痴呆的社区老年人的听力和认知功能的时间序列。方法 在巴尔的摩老龄化纵向研究中，对 313 名年龄≥60 岁的非痴呆参与者在 2012 年至 2015 年以及此后 2 年期间的听力和认知能力进行了评估。听力较差的定义为听力较好的耳朵中 0.5-4 kHz 的纯音平均值。具有视觉或听觉输入的认知测量是路径制作测试 B 部分；数字符号替换测试；加州语言学习测试立即召回、短延迟和长延迟；数字跨度向前/向后；本顿视觉保留测试；和简易精神状态检查。我们在每个时间点使用线性回归模型进行横截面关联，并使用自回归、交叉滞后模型来评估基线听力障碍（时间 1）是否预测基线（时间 2）后 2 年的认知表现，反之亦然。结果 横断面，听力较差与认知能力之间没有关联。从纵向上看，较差的听力与加利福尼亚语言学习测试的下降有关，即刻（β = -0.073，SE = 0.032，p = .024），短延迟（β = -0.134，SE = 0.043，p = .002），长-延迟（β = -0.080，SE = 0.032，p = .012）回忆和数字跨度向前（β = -0.074，SE = 0.029，p = .011）。）从时间 1 到时间 2。认知表现时间 1 未预测时间 2 的听力状态变化。