{"doi":"10.1093/geronb/gbab194","title":"Examining the Combined Estimated Effects of Hearing Loss and Depressive Symptoms on Risk of Cognitive Decline and Incident Dementia","abstract":"OBJECTIVES: Late-life depression is a comorbidity that may co-occur in older adults with hearing loss-each has prevalent and independent modifiable risk factors for dementia. METHODS: Using data from 1,820 Health, Aging and Body Composition study participants (74 ± 2.8 years, 38% Black race), we compared the hearing loss-dementia/cognitive decline relationship between those with normal hearing/mild hearing loss and those with moderate or greater hearing loss. Using linear mixed-effects and Cox proportional hazard models, we investigated if the associations between hearing loss and cognitive decline or dementia (Modified Mini-Mental State [3MS] Examination and Digit Symbol Substitution Test [DSST]) differed by the presence or absence of depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were defined as Center for Epidemiologic Study-Depression scale 10 ≥10 at one or more visits from Years 1-5. Algorithmic incident dementia was defined using medication use, hospitalizations, and cognitive test scores. Audiometric hearing loss was measured at Year 5 and categorized as normal/mild versus moderate or greater hearing loss. RESULTS: Having both hearing loss and depressive symptoms (vs. having neither) was associated with faster rates of decline in 3MS Examination (β = -0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.78, -0.19) and DSST (β = -0.35; 95% CI: -0.67, -0.03) over 10 years of follow-up. Having both hearing loss and depressive symptoms (vs. neither) was associated with increased risk (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.91; 95% CI: 1.59, 5.33 vs. HR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.15 hearing loss only and HR: 2.35; 95% CI: 1.56, 3.53 depressive symptoms only) of incident dementia in multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models. DISCUSSION: Comorbid conditions among hearing-impaired older adults should be considered and may aid in dementia prevention and management strategies.","journal":"The Journals of Gerontology Series B","year":2021,"id":160633,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":34,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9248,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":293445,"name":"Willa D. Brenowitz","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":55010,"name":"Kristine Yaffe","orcid":"0000-0003-0919-3825","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284975,"name":"Nicole M. Armstrong","orcid":"0000-0002-2479-1076","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482270,"name":"Nicholas S. Reed","orcid":"0000-0003-0410-6067","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":633204,"name":"Frank R. Lin","orcid":"0000-0002-6458-1196","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":322305,"name":"Alden L. Gross","orcid":"0000-0002-4678-0562","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":482269,"name":"Jennifer A. Deal","orcid":"0000-0002-6985-048X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":673897,"name":"Danielle S. Powell","orcid":"0000-0003-3447-4450","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:44:48.240577Z","pmid":"34655295","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}