Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders Extra (Dec 2017)

Hearing Impairment, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies

  • Jingkai Wei,
  • Yirui Hu,
  • Li Zhang,
  • Qiang Hao,
  • Ruowei Yang,
  • Haidong Lu,
  • Xuan Zhang,
  • Eeshwar K. Chandrasekar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1159/000485178
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 3
pp. 440 – 452

Abstract

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Background: To estimate a pooled association between hearing impairment and risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Methods: PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched for prospective cohort studies that examined the association between hearing impairment and risk of mild cognitive impairment and/or dementia. Random-effects models were fitted to estimate the summary risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs), which represents the pooled association between hearing impairment with risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, compared to subjects free of hearing impairment. Results: Four studies on hearing impairment with mild cognitive impairment and 7 studies on hearing impairment with dementia were included in the meta-analysis. A total of 15,521 subjects were studied with follow-up periods between 2 and 16.8 years. Hearing impairment was associated with a greater risk of mild cognitive impairment (RR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.51) and dementia (RR = 2.39, 95% CI: 1.58, 3.61). Conclusions: The meta-analysis showed that hearing impairment is associated with a higher risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia among older adults.

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