Trial reportInternational journal of geriatric psychiatry2020
A pilot randomized controlled trial of hearing aids to improve mood and cognition in older adults.
Trial report in International journal of geriatric psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hearing aids for mild to moderate hearing loss in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Pure Tone Audiometry and Hearing Loss in Alzheimer's Disease: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A precision medicine tool to understand who responds best to hearing aids in late-life depression.International journal of geriatric psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Hearing Rehabilitative Treatment for Older Adults With Comorbid Hearing Loss and Depression: Effects on Depressive Symptoms and Executive Function.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2022Trial
- The association between hearing impairment and incident depression in older adults: a longitudinal analysis.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Hearing Loss Is Associated With Depression and Dysthymia in the All of Us Research Program.The Laryngoscope · 2025Article
- Hearing Loss, Hearing Aid Use, and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms Among Persons Living With Dementia: Findings From NACC.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025Article
- A hypothetical intervention on the use of hearing aids for the risk of dementia in people with hearing loss in UK Biobank.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- The Association Between Hearing Loss and Depression in a Large Electronic Health Record System.Otolaryngology--head and neck surgery : official journal of American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery · 2025Article
- Results from AD-HEARING (ADherence to and adjustment of HEARING aids in clinical routine care as preventive dementia strategy): a prospective 6-month follow-up study on cognition and psychological well-being.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Measuring Multidimensional Aspects of Health in the Oldest Old Using the NIH Toolbox: Results From the ARMADA Study.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2024Article
- Hearing Loss in Older People With Schizophrenia: Audiologic Characteristics and Association With Psychosocial Functioning.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Dementia and Hearing Aid Use and Cessation: A National Study.American journal of audiology · 2023Article
- Biological factors influencing depression in later life: role of aging processes and treatment implications.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- Listening with an Ageing Brain - a Cognitive Challenge.Laryngo- rhino- otologie · 2023Review
- Hearing loss and its link to cognitive impairment and dementia.Frontiers in dementia · 2023Review
- Hearing Aid Use Time Is Causally Influenced by Psychological Parameters in Mildly Distressed Patients with Chronic Tinnitus and Mild-to-Moderate Hearing Loss.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- DSLJournal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAge-related hearing loss (ARHL) is a prevalent condition associated with increased risk for depression and cognitive decline. This 12-week prospective, double-blind pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of hearing aids (HAs) for depressed older adults with ARHL evaluated the feasibility of a novel research design. METHODS/
designN = 13 individuals aged ≥60 years with Major Depressive Disorder or Persistent Depressive Disorder and at least mild hearing loss (pure tone average ≥ 30 dB) were randomized to receive full- (active) vs low-amplification (sham) HAs added to psychiatric treatment as usual. Duration of HA use in hours/day, adverse events frequency, attrition rate, and maintenance of the study blinding were the primary outcome measures.
resultsCompliance with HAs was excellent (>9 hours/day for both groups) and rates of adverse events and drop-outs did not differ between groups. Preliminary data demonstrated differential improvement for active vs sham HAs on hearing functioning (Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly [nonparametric effect size (np-ES) = 0.62]), depressive symptoms (Inventory for Depressive Symptomatology [np-ES = 0.31]), cognition (Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status Immediate Memory [np-ES = 0.25]), and general functioning (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule [np-ES = 0.53]). Significantly greater than 50% of both groups correctly guessed their treatment assignment, indicating incomplete concealment of treatment allocation.
conclusionsThis pilot RCT for ARHL and late-life depression was feasible to execute and showed clinical promise, but improved methods of blinding the experimental treatments are needed. Larger studies should investigate whether hearing remediation may be an effective preventative and/or therapeutic strategy for late-life depression and cognitive decline.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.