Comparison of Subjective and Objective Measures of Hearing, Auditory Processing, and Cognition Among Older Adults With and Without Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

Purpose The aims of the study were to compare the Cognitive Self-Report Questionnaire (CSRQ; Spina, Ruff, & Mahncke, 2006) Hearing and Cognitive subscale ratings among older adults with and without probable mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to examine whether self-report, as measured by the CSRQ, is associated with objective measures of hearing, auditory processing, and cognition. Method Data analyses included 97 older adults of ages 61–91 years. Participants completed the CSRQ self-report measure as well as a battery of objective measures, including pure-tone audiometry, degraded speech understanding, temporal processing, and memory. Results Older adults with probable MCI rated their cognitive abilities more poorly than those without MCI ( p = .002), but ratings of hearing and auditory abilities did not differ between the two groups ( p = .912). Age and CSRQ Hearing subscale ratings explained a significant proportion of variance in objective measures of hearing and degraded speech understanding ( R 2 = .39, p < .001). Age, sex, mental status, and CSRQ Cognition subscale ratings explained a significant proportion of variance in objective memory performance ( R 2 = .55, p < .001). Conclusions Taken together, these results suggest that the CSRQ is an appropriate self-report measure of hearing, cognition, and some aspects of auditory processing for older adults with and without probable MCI.