Hearing characteristics in ACHIEVE (Sanchez et al., 2023)

Purpose: The Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study is a randomized clinical trial designed to determine the effects of a best practice hearing intervention versus a successful aging health education control intervention on cognitive decline among community-dwelling older adults with untreated mild-to-moderate hearing loss. We describe the baseline audiologic characteristics of the ACHIEVE participants.

Method: Participants aged 70–84 years (N = 977; M_age = 76.8) were enrolled at four U.S. sites through two recruitment routes: (a) an ongoing longitudinal study and (b) de novo through the community. Participants underwent diagnostic evaluation including otoscopy, tympanometry, pure-tone and speech audiometry, speech-in-noise testing, and provided self-reported hearing abilities. Baseline characteristics are reported as frequencies (percentages) for categorical variables or medians (interquartiles, Q1–Q3) for continuous variables. Between-groups comparisons were conducted using chi-square tests for categorical variables or Kruskal–Wallis test for continuous variables. Spearman correlations assessed relationships between measured hearing function and self-reported hearing handicap.

Results: The median four-frequency pure-tone average of the better ear was 39 dB HL, and the median speech-in-noise performance was a 6-dB SNR loss, indicating mild speech-in-noise difficulty. No clinically meaningful differences were found across sites. Significant differences in subjective measures were found for recruitment route. Expected correlations between hearing measurements and self-reported handicap were found.

Conclusions: The extensive baseline audiologic characteristics reported here will inform future analyses examining associations between hearing loss and cognitive decline. The final ACHIEVE data set will be publicly available for use among the scientific community.

Supplemental Material S1. Hearing history variables of the enrolled 977 ACHIEVE participants stratified by study site and recruitment source. Displayed are self-reported tinnitus perception, noise exposure, and otologic history.

Supplemental Material S2. Hearing characteristics of the 977 participants stratified by study site and recruitment source. Displayed are the otoscopy, tympanometry, ear-specific (right/left) pure-tone audiometric typing and PTAs, and word recognition in quiet performance.

Supplemental Material S3. Summary of the statistical results comparing groups (recruitment route: ARIC vs de novo; study sites: NC, MS, MD, MN). Comparisons were made using a Kruskal-Wallis test for continuous variables or Pearson’s chi square for categorical variables.

Supplemental Material S4. Air-conduction pure-tone violin plots for the right and left ears.

Supplemental Material S5. Relationship between HHIE-S scores to single item Self-Report.

Sanchez, V. A., Arnold, M. L., Betz, J. F., Reed, N. S., Faucette, S., Anderson, E., Burgard, S., Coresh, J., Deal, J. A., Eddins, A. C., Goman, A. M., Glynn, N. W., Gravens-Mueller, L., Hampton, J., Hayden, K. M., Huang, A. R., Liou, K., Mitchell, C. M., Mosley Jr., T. H., Neil, H. N., Pankow, J. S., Pike, J. R., Schrack, J. A., Sherry, L., Teece, K. H., Witherell, K., Lin, F. R., Chisolm, T. H., & For the ACHIEVE Collaborative Study. (2023). Description of the baseline audiologic characteristics of the participants enrolled in the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders Study. American Journal of Audiology, 33(1), 122–138. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJA-23-00066