Hearing Loss and Subjective Well-Being Among Older Adults: Mediating Effect of Social Activity and Cognitive Function

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To examine the relationship between hearing loss and subjective well-being (SWB) and to investigate the mediating roles of social activity and cognitive function in the link between hearing loss and SWB.

Methods

An analysis of 11,949 older Chinese adults was conducted from the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Survey. Multiple linear regression and mediation analysis were conducted.

Results

Hearing loss had a significant negative association with SWB (B = -0.787; 95% CI: −0.961, −0.613). Hearing loss influenced older adults’ SWB in the following three ways: first, via the partial mediating effect of social activity (B = -0.021, 95% CI: −0.036, −0.009); second, via the partial mediating effect of cognitive function (B = -0.275, 95% CI: −0.347, −0.252); and third, via the serial mediating effects of social activity and cognitive function (−0.016, 95% CI: −0.021, −0.011).

Conclusions

Social activity and cognitive function play a serial intermediary role in the relationship between hearing loss and SWB among older Chinese adults.

Clinical implications

Multidimensional health and social interventions aimed at improving mental health and social inclusion among adults with hearing loss should be recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive function
• hearing loss
• older adults
• social activity
• subjective well-being

Clinical implications

• From a practical view, given the fact that hearing loss can decrease the well-being of the older adults, families, caregivers, healthcare personnel and institutions should pay more attention to old adults with hearing loss or at high-risk groups.

• In rehabilitative practice, broader consultations could specifically include discussing emotional aspects of social interaction with patients and how hearing loss affects cognitive and physical functioning.

• This serial mediation model has the potential to facilitate earlier identification, increase motivation for hearing aid and treatment, as well as reduce stigma.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Center for Healthy Aging and Development Studies, Peking University for providing the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

Author 1 and author 3 conceived the concept and design of the study; Author 1 and Author 2 contributed to data cleaning and analysis. Author 2 and author 3 contributed to the writing assistance and proof reading the article. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The datasets analyzed for this study can be found in the https://opendata.pku.edu.cn/dataverse/CHADS.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2023.2240337.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by a grant from STI2030-Major Projects (2021ZD0200700), National Natural Science Foundation of China (71804199, 82071543), the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan (2021JJ30037), Health Commission of Hunan Province (202103091470, 202215025353), the Hunan Medical Association (HNA202101008).