Auditory and Cognitive Training for Cognition in Adults With Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Blake J Lawrence, Dona M P Jayakody, Helen Henshaw and 4 others
PMID 30092719WHAT IT FOUND
Home-based auditory training produced small but reliable improvements in overall cognition and working memory for adults with hearing loss.
Cognitive training showed larger effects, but these were unstable and driven by one study. Neither intervention is proven to halt decline.
Key findings
01Auditory training resulted in a small, consistent improvement in overall cognition and working memory.
02Cognitive training showed a large improvement in overall cognition, but this effect was highly variable and depended heavily on a single study.
03Adherence to home-based training was generally high in the studies reviewed, often exceeding 80%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The certainty of evidence for cognitive training was rated as very low due to high variability between studies. The large positive effect of cognitive training was driven almost entirely by one study; removing it made the benefit much smaller. Only nine studies were included, and several specific cognitive domains (like executive function) were based on very few studies. Most studies did not report baseline cognitive status, so it is unclear if participants already had mild cognitive impairment. Long-term follow-up data was limited, so it is unknown if these benefits last after training stops.
Declared interests
The study was supported by non-U.S. government funding. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that generic computerized cognitive training is superior to auditory training for hearing loss. The large benefits seen for cognitive training were driven by a single outlier study; when that study is excluded, the advantage disappears and the effect size becomes similar to the more consistent, smaller gains from auditory training.