The effect of anxiety and depression on cognition in older adults with severe-to-profound hearing loss

To evaluate the effect of anxiety and/or depression on cognition in older adults with severe-to-profound hearing loss.

In total, 83 older subjects (age of 55 years or older) with post-lingual, bilateral, severe-to-profound hearing loss were enrolled in this study between April 2014 and March 2021. The Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status for Hearing-impaired individuals (RBANS-H) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were used to measure cognition and anxiety/depression.

A multiple linear regression was used to predict the total RBANS-H score based on the total HADS score, years of education and age of the participants. These variables statistically significantly predicted RBANS-H, F(3, 79) = 12.604, p = 0.010, R² = 0.324. All three variables added statistically significantly to the prediction, p < 0.05. A higher HADS-score resulted in a significantly lower RBANS-H score with an estimated effect size b1 of − 0.486. In addition, a multiple linear regression was executed for each subdomain of the RBANS-H and its relation to the total HADS-score, age and years of education of the participants. These variables statistically significantly predicted RBANS-H immediate memory F(3, 79) = 16.858, p = 0.003, R² = 0.390. All three variables added statistically significantly to the prediction, p < 0.05. In the other four subdomains no statistical significance was observed.

Anxiety and/or depression have a significantly negative impact on cognition in individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss. This negative correlation was mainly attributable to the significantly lower score in the immediate memory subdomain.