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Age-related hearing loss, depression and auditory amplification: a randomized clinical trial

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Our study investigates the effectiveness of aural rehabilitation to decrease depressive symptoms in older adults, and the relationship between hearing loss and depression.

Methods

A randomized controlled study was conducted at a hearing rehabilitation center with people over 65 years old. Participants were randomly allocated to the intervention group who received hearing aids, or to the control group. Data collection included pure-tone audiometry and a Portuguese version of the Geriatric Depression Scale assessed at two time points: baseline (P0) and after 4-week period (P1).

Results

The results show that the increase of hearing thresholds in pure-tone audiometry is associated with a significant increase in depressive symptoms (p = 0.001). The effect of aural rehabilitation for improving depressive symptoms was significant in intervention group (p = 0.000) and between groups (p = 0.003) in P1.

Conclusion

Age-related hearing loss has adverse effects on older adults’ mental health, due to reduced hearing inputs that may increase levels of effort to communicate and affect social engagement, which lead to depression. Hearing aid use improves levels of depression and can promote greater quality of life in older adults.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge participants for generously sharing their time in this research. The authors woukd like to acknowledge Dr. Carolina Fernandes for useful discussions.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Correspondence to Tatiana Marques.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra in March 2018 (Approval number 2/2018).

Consent to participate

All the participants gave written consent prior to their participation, and the procedures applied were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Marques, T., Marques, F.D. & Miguéis, A. Age-related hearing loss, depression and auditory amplification: a randomized clinical trial. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 279, 1317–1321 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-021-06805-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-021-06805-6

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