ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
This article is part of the Research TopicAge-Related Hearing Loss: From Pathogenesis to Therapy and Psychiatric ImpactView all 6 articles
Peripheral and Central Auditory Dysfunction, Cardiometabolic Multimorbidity, and Cognitive Performance in Community-dwelling Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
Jian Ruan1
Meng Hao1
Xiuhua Hu1Min Zhang1
Weibin Zhang1Yan Zhang1
Zhao Han1
Chen Jie1
Qingwei Ruan1*Jingchun He2
Bing Chen3
Zhijun BAO1- 1Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- 2Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine Xinhua Hospital Department of Orthopaedics, Shanghai, China
- 3Fudan University Eye Ear Nose and Throat Hospital Department of ENT and Otorhinolaryngology, Shanghai, China
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Objectives: Both age-related peripheral or central hearing loss, and cardiometabolic multimorbidity (CMM), which are independent association with global and domain-specific cognitive impairment, are common among older adults. Cardiometabolic diseases also are independent risk factors of age-related hearing loss. The first aim of the study was to investigate the independent and joint influence of CMM and low-and high-frequency hearing loss or central auditory processing dysfunction (CAPD) on global and domain-specific cognitive impairment. The second aim was to investigate whether CMM mediate the effects of age-related hearing loss on cognitive performance. Methods: In total, 508 eligible community-dwelling dementia-free older adult participants agreed to participate and completed a cross-sectional investigation. The averages of thresholds at 0.5, 1, and 2 KHz for low frequency (LPTA) and at 4, 6, and 8 KHz for high frequency (HPTA) were calculated. CAPD was assessed using SNR (signal-to-noise ratio threshold) in a words-in-noise test. Global and domain-specific cognitive performance was measured using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. This study analyzed the independent associations between LPTA, HPTA, CAPD, or CMM and global and domain-specific cognitive performance after adjusting for each other and other confounders. Weighted logistic regression were used to assess the joint effects of CMM and the LPTA, HPTA, or CAPD on cognitive performance. The R package "Mediation" was used to examine whether CMM mediated the associations between LPTA, HPTA, or CAPD and cognitive performance. Results: CMM was independently associated with global cognitive performance in pre-MCI [β(95%CI): 0.124(0.047, 0.202), adjusted p = 0.0068], MCI groups [0.131(0.055, 0.206), adjusted p = 0.068] for total sample, and the sensitivity test (adjusted p = 0.0506, and 0.012, respectively)
Keywords: age-related hearing loss, cardiometabolic multimorbidity, Central auditory processing, cognitive impairment, High-frequency hearing loss, Low-frequency hearing loss
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ruan, Hao, Hu, Zhang, Zhang, Zhang, Han, Jie, Ruan, He, Chen and BAO. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Qingwei Ruan
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