Hay-McCutcheon Marcia J, Hyams Adriana, Yang Xin, Parton Jason, Panasiuk Brianna, Ondocsin Sarah, James Mary Margaret, Scogin Forrest
Department of Communicative Disorders, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2017 Aug 16;60(8):2346-2359. doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-H-16-0369.
The purpose of this preliminary study was to explore the associations among hearing loss, physical health, and visual memory in adults living in rural areas, urban clusters, and an urban city in west Central Alabama.
Two hundred ninety-seven adults (182 women, 115 men) from rural areas, urban clusters, and an urban city of west Central Alabama completed a hearing assessment, a physical health questionnaire, a hearing handicap measure, and a visual memory test.
A greater number of adults with hearing loss lived in rural areas and urban clusters than in an urban area. In addition, poorer physical health was significantly associated with hearing loss. A greater number of individuals with poor physical health who lived in rural towns and urban clusters had hearing loss compared with the adults with other physical health issues who lived in an urban city. Poorer hearing sensitivity resulted in poorer outcomes on the Emotional and Social subscales of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults. And last, visual memory, a working-memory task, was not associated with hearing loss but was associated with educational level.
The outcomes suggest that hearing loss is associated with poor physical and emotional health but not with visual-memory skills. A greater number of adults living in rural areas experienced hearing loss compared with adults living in an urban city, and consequently, further research will be necessary to confirm this relationship and to explore the reasons behind it. Also, further exploration of the relationship between cognition and hearing loss in adults living in rural and urban areas will be needed.
本初步研究的目的是探讨阿拉巴马州中西部农村地区、城市集群和城市中成年人的听力损失、身体健康和视觉记忆之间的关联。
来自阿拉巴马州中西部农村地区、城市集群和城市的297名成年人（182名女性，115名男性）完成了听力评估、身体健康问卷、听力障碍测量和视觉记忆测试。
与城市地区相比，农村地区和城市集群中听力损失的成年人数量更多。此外，较差的身体健康与听力损失显著相关。与居住在城市的其他身体健康问题的成年人相比，居住在农村城镇和城市集群中身体健康较差的个体听力损失更多。较差的听力敏感度导致成人听力障碍量表情绪和社交子量表的结果更差。最后，视觉记忆作为一项工作记忆任务，与听力损失无关，但与教育水平有关。
结果表明，听力损失与身体和情绪健康不佳有关，但与视觉记忆技能无关。与居住在城市的成年人相比，居住在农村地区的成年人听力损失更多，因此，有必要进一步研究以证实这种关系并探究其背后的原因。此外，还需要进一步探索农村和城市地区成年人认知与听力损失之间的关系。
