Peripheral hearing loss and its association with cognition among ethnic Chinese older adults

INTRODUCTION : Many studies on hearing loss (HL) and cognition are limited by subjective hearing assessments and verbally administered cognition tests, the majority of the document findings in Western populations. This study aimed to assess the association of HL with cognitive impairment among ethnic Chinese Singaporean older adults using visually presented cognitive tests. METHODS : The hearing of community- dwelling older adults was assessed using pure tone audiometry. Cognitive function was assessed using the Computerized Cambridge Cognitive Test Battery (CANTAB). Multiple regression analyses examined the association between hearing and cognitive function, adjusted for age, education, and gender. RESULTS : HL (pure-tone average [PTA] of thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better ear, BE4PTA) was associated with reduced performance in delayed matching and multitasking tasks (β = −0.25, p = 0.019, and β = 0.02, p = 0.023, respectively). Moderate to severe HL was associated with reduced performance in delayed matching and verbal recall memory tasks (β = −10.6, p = 0.019, and β = −0.28, p = 0.042). High-frequency HL was associated with reduced performance in the spatial working memory task (β = 0.004, p = 0.022). All-frequency HL was associated with reduced performance in spatial working memory and multitasking (β = 0.01, p = 0.040, and β = 0.02, p = 0.048). CONCLUSION : Similar to Western populations, HL among tonal language- speaking ethnic Chinese was associated with worse performance in tasks requiring working memory and executive function.Jurong Health Research and Development Fundhttps://www.karger.com/DEMam2022Speech-Language Pathology and Audiolog

Impaired functional vitamin B6 status is associated with increased risk of lung cancer

Circulating vitamin B6 levels have been found to be inversely associated with lung cancer. Most studies have focused on the B6 form pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP), a direct biomarker influenced by inflammation and other factors. Using a functional B6 marker allows further investigation of the potential role of vitamin B6 status in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. We prospectively evaluated the association of the functional marker of vitamin B6 status, the 3-hydroxykynurenine:xanthurenic acid (HK:XA) ratio, with risk of lung cancer in a nested case–control study consisting of 5,364 matched case–control pairs from the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium (LC3). We used conditional logistic regression to evaluate the association between HK:XA and lung cancer, and random effect models to combine results from different cohorts and regions. High levels of HK:XA, indicating impaired functional B6 status, were associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, the odds ratio comparing the fourth and the first quartiles (OR4th vs. 1st) was 1.25 (95% confidence interval, 1.10–1.41). Stratified analyses indicated that this association was primarily driven by cases diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma. Notably, the risk associated with HK:XA was approximately 50% higher in groups with a high relative frequency of squamous cell carcinoma, i.e., men, former and current smokers. This risk of squamous cell carcinoma was present in both men and women regardless of smoking status

Peripheral Hearing Loss and Its Association with Cognition among Ethnic Chinese Older Adults

10.1159/000519291Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders504394–40

Social Neuroscience

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