Hearing in Middle Age

Dawes, Piers; Fortnum, Heather; Moore, David R.; Emsley, Richard; Norman, Paul; Cruickshanks, Karen J.; Davis, Adrian; Edmondson-Jones, Mark; McCormack, Abby; Lutman, Mark E.; Munro, Kevin J.

doi:10.1097/aud.0000000000000010

Cited by 150 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…5-0-8) presented separately to each ear via circumaural headphones (Sennheiser D25 [31]. A noise, shaped spectrally to the complete set of 9 digits, was played simultaneously.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relation between Speech-in-Noise Threshold, Hearing Loss and Cognition from 40–69 Years of Age

et al. 2014

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BackgroundHealthy hearing depends on sensitive ears and adequate brain processing. Essential aspects of both hearing and cognition decline with advancing age, but it is largely unknown how one influences the other. The current standard measure of hearing, the pure-tone audiogram is not very cognitively demanding and does not predict well the most important yet challenging use of hearing, listening to speech in noisy environments. We analysed data from UK Biobank that asked 40–69 year olds about their hearing, and assessed their ability on tests of speech-in-noise hearing and cognition.Methods and FindingsAbout half a million volunteers were recruited through NHS registers. Respondents completed ‘whole-body’ testing in purpose-designed, community-based test centres across the UK. Objective hearing (spoken digit recognition in noise) and cognitive (reasoning, memory, processing speed) data were analysed using logistic and multiple regression methods. Speech hearing in noise declined exponentially with age for both sexes from about 50 years, differing from previous audiogram data that showed a more linear decline from <40 years for men, and consistently less hearing loss for women. The decline in speech-in-noise hearing was especially dramatic among those with lower cognitive scores. Decreasing cognitive ability and increasing age were both independently associated with decreasing ability to hear speech-in-noise (0.70 and 0.89 dB, respectively) among the population studied. Men subjectively reported up to 60% higher rates of difficulty hearing than women. Workplace noise history associated with difficulty in both subjective hearing and objective speech hearing in noise. Leisure noise history was associated with subjective, but not with objective difficulty hearing.ConclusionsOlder people have declining cognitive processing ability associated with reduced ability to hear speech in noise, measured by recognition of recorded spoken digits. Subjective reports of hearing difficulty generally show a higher prevalence than objective measures, suggesting that current objective methods could be extended further.

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“…5-0-8) presented separately to each ear via circumaural headphones (Sennheiser D25 [31]. A noise, shaped spectrally to the complete set of 9 digits, was played simultaneously.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relation between Speech-in-Noise Threshold, Hearing Loss and Cognition from 40–69 Years of Age

et al. 2014

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“…Higher scores correspond to worse performance. In analyses, we used the SRT of the better hearing ear, following the approach of other studies [9,28]. Due to outliers and skewed distribution we logtransformed the SRT (calculated as log [SRT + 13] to account for negative SRT values) when analyzing it as a continuous measure of objective hearing.…”

Section: Hearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic risk score for Alzheimer’s disease is associated with poor hearing

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Yaffe

et al. 2019

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Introduction:Incipient dementia or shared genetics may partly explain the association between hearing loss and dementia. We evaluated whether genetic variants known to increase Alzheimer's disease (AD) also influence hearing difficulty.Methods: UK Biobank participants aged 56+ with Caucasian genetic ancestry self-reported difficulty hearing and hearing with background noise (n=244,915) and underwent objectively measured hearing assessments (n=80,074). Poor objective hearing was defined as >-5.5 dB speech reception threshold on a Digit Triplet Test. We evaluated whether an AD genetic risk score (AD-GRS; range -1.2 to 1.9), the weighted sum of 23 previously identified AD-related polymorphisms, predicted objective or self-reported poor hearing, using age, sex, and genetic ancestry adjusted logistic regression models. Results:Higher AD-GRS predicted objectively measured poor hearing (OR=1.06; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.11) and self-reported problems hearing with background noise (OR=1.03; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.05). Discussion:Using novel methods, we found evidence that AD genetic risk influences hearing loss.

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“…These results imply that as the level of CTS increases, there is progressively less neural activity or neural synchronization occurring within the auditory brainstem, that is, neural hypoactivity. An important theoretical and clinically relevant question posed by these results is do subjects in a state of CTS experience loudness decruitment (abnormally slow loudness growth) similar to patients with acoustic neuromas or brain damage (Hebert et al, 2013, Dawes et al, 2014) or do they experience loudness recruitment characteristic of patients with sensorineural hearing loss or hyperacusis that is often associated with tinnitus (Loeb and Smith, 1967, Martins et al, 2013, Mahmood et al, 2014)?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prolonged noise exposure-induced auditory threshold shifts in rats

et al. 2014

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Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) initially increases with exposure duration, but eventually reaches an asymptotic threshold shift (ATS) once the exposure duration exceeds 18-24 h. Equations for predicting the ATS have been developed for several species, but not for rats, even though this species is extensively used in noise exposure research. To fill this void, we exposed rats to narrowband noise (NBN, 16-20 kHz) for 5 weeks starting at 80 dB SPL in the first week and then increasing the level by 6 dB per week to a final level of 104 dB SPL. Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) were recorded before, during, and following the exposure to determine the amount of hearing loss. The noise induced threshold shift to continuous long-term exposure, defined as compound threshold shift (CTS), within and above 16-20 kHz increased with noise level at the rate of 1.82 dB threshold shift per dB of noise level (NL) above a critical level (C) of 77.2 dB SPL i.e. CTS = 1.82(NL-77.2). The normalized amplitude of the largest ABR peak measured at 100 dB SPL decreased at the rate of 3.1% per dB of NL above the critical level of 76.9 dB SPL, i.e., %ABR Reduction = 3.1%(NL-76.9). ABR thresholds measured >30 days post-exposure only partially recovered resulting in a permanent threshold shift of 30-40 dB along with severe hair cell loss in the basal, high-frequency region of the cochlea. In the rat, CTS increases with noise level with a slope similar to humans and chinchillas. The critical level (C) in the rat is similar to that of humans, but higher than that of chinchillas.

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Hearing in Middle Age

Cited by 150 publications

References 52 publications

Relation between Speech-in-Noise Threshold, Hearing Loss and Cognition from 40–69 Years of Age

Relation between Speech-in-Noise Threshold, Hearing Loss and Cognition from 40–69 Years of Age

Genetic risk score for Alzheimer’s disease is associated with poor hearing

Prolonged noise exposure-induced auditory threshold shifts in rats

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