A systematic narrative synthesis of acute amplification-induced improvements in cognitive ability in hearing-impaired adults

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review investigated if hearing aid use was associated with acute improvements in cognitive function in hearing-impaired adults.

Design: The review question and inclusion/exclusion criteria were designed using the Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes, and Study design (PICOS) mnemonic. The review was pre-registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Review (PROSPERO) and performed in accordance with the statement on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA).

Study sample: Thirteen articles, of various designs, published between 1990 and 2018, were identified via a search of five electronic databases.

Results: Most studies reported 1–2 cognitive outcome measures. Nine studies reported a significant improvement in outcome and four studies reported no significant change. None of the 13 studies received a high score on a quality assessment checklist. Due to concerns over risk of bias and indirectness, the overall quality of evidence was graded as low.

Conclusions: Only a few studies were identified, some of which report a small improvement in cognitive outcome; however, the overall quality of evidence was low. Further research is very likely to have an important impact on our confidence in answering the review question.

Keywords:

• Hearing aids
• cognition
• systematic review
• outcome
• benefit

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Note

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Rebekah Bruckner for searching and screening studies for inclusion in the review. They are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for helping improve the manuscript.

Notes

1 ScienceDirect yielded 11,863 results using terms “hearing aid” AND “cognitive function” AND “adult”; Web of Science yielded 284 records using terms Hearing aid (215,003) AND cognition (544,563) AND adult (1,439,003); Google Scholar yielded 401,000 results using terms “hearing aid” AND “adult” AND “cognition” OR “attention”; Using EBSCOhost, the search “hearing aid” OR “hearing impairment” AND “cognition” NOT “child*” limited to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, Magazines and Reviews returned 167,521 results.

Additional information

Funding

KJM was supported by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.