高齢者の聴覚と認知機能

―要介護高齢者の聴力と認知機能評価から―

抄録

PURPOSE: The hearing level and cognitive function were examined in 174 elderly persons admitted to a nursing care facility using the Auditory Checker (JB electronics.inc, Japan). The Auditory Checker is a screening tool that can evaluate pure-tone hearing level up to 1000 Hz and speech discrimination and sentence understanding; the results are expressed in terms of the auditory cognitive score. The baseline score and the score after one year were compared using a statistical approach. The background factors of the subjects, such as the age, sex, degree of disability, and MMSE-J scores were also evaluated by statistical methods.

RESULTS: The results revealed a significant positive correlation between the auditory cognitive score and the MMSE-J score. Factors such as the age, gender, degree of need for long-term care, presence/absence of brain disease, etc., had no significant influence on the auditory perception.

CONCLUSION: It was useful for the functional screening of hearing acuity and cognitive function in case that had the hearing loss conducted prior to cognito-psycho test batteries. It is useful to conduct functional screening of the hearing acuity and cognitive functions prior to administration of cognito-psycho test batteries in patients with hearing loss. The Auditory Checker is useful for evaluating the hearing ability and auditory perception of elderly people who need long-term care. When evaluating hearing-impaired elderly people whose cognitive function is significantly reduced, it is useful to use the MMSE-J, Barthel Index, motivation score, etc. (VI) It is also desirable to use internationally recognized test batteries. An outline of the test batteries and their application method are outlined. It is an urgent need to establish a screening system for hearing and auditory perception in elderly people.