Laryngoscope: Long-term cognitive assessment of older workers with cochlear implants

Dementia is one of the most common diseases worldwide and is considered one of the most burdensome, costing more than $604 billion
in medical and financial resources each year.
Over the past decade, researchers have established a link
between progressive hearing loss and Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers from the United States recently published an article in Laryngoscope investigating long-term language and cognitive outcomes in older workers with cochlear (CI) implants.

The researchers recruited patients aged ≥ 65 years with implanted CI between 2009 and 2014 and followed them for more than
four years.
Preoperative and postoperative hearing and language assessments were
collected.
Cognitive status
was assessed by mini-mental state examination (MMSE) at many time points.

A total of 53 patients were eligible
for inclusion.
Based on preoperative MMSE scores, the researchers divided patients with normal (28-30 points) and mildly impaired cognitive abilities (MIC, a score of 25-27) into two groups
.
The results showed that hearing and speech performance improved significantly regardless of cognitive status one year after implantation, and this condition did not change
significantly for more than four years.
Mixed model analysis of controlled age showed no clear difference
in cognitive decline rates beyond four years post-implantation between the normal cognitive population (1.
74; 95% CI 0.
89 to 2.
6) and the MIC (2.
9; 95% 1.
91 to 3.
88) population.

CI preoperative and postoperative measurements of MMSE in 53 patients

In summary, the speech performance of both normal cognition and MIC patients was significantly improved and maintained
after CI.
The rate of cognitive decline appears to be similar in older CI patients, regardless of preoperative cognitive status.

Although the results showed no difference in the rate of cognitive decline after CI between different cognitive groups over a period of more than 4 years, future studies need to further validate these results
with more comprehensive cognitive measures and over a longer period of time.

Original source:

Jacques A Herzog， Craig A Buchman， Dorina Kallogjeri et al.
Cognitive Assessment in Elderly Cochlear Implant Recipients： Long-Term Analysis.
Laryngoscope.
Oct 2022