Trajectory of Cognitive Decline After Incident Hearing Loss: A 24-year Population-Based Longitudinal Cohort Study

BackgroundThe extent of cognitive decline following incident hearing loss (HL) remains inadequately unexplored.MethodsUsing data from the Health and Retirement Study (from 1998 to 2022), we assessed global cognition, measured by orientation, calculation, and memory tasks, across survey waves. Linear mixed-effects models were employed to estimate annual cognitive decline associated with incident HL.ResultsAmong 7,598 participants, 2,241 developed incident HL. Significant accelerations in annual decline were observed following HL onset in global cognition (β = -0.080SD/year; 95% CI: -0.092 to -0.069), memory (-0.017SD/year; -0.023 to -0.012), orientation (-0.106SD/year; -0.125 to -0.088), and calculation (-0.014SD/year; -0.019 to -0.008). Acute declines were also identified at the time of HL onset in global cognition (-0.101SD; -0.144 to -0.059), memory (-0.119SD; -0.148 to -0.090), and calculation (-0.067SD; -0.097 to -0.036).ConclusionsIncident HL was associated with both acute declines and accelerated long-term declines in global cognition, memory, and orientation.