Associations Between Hearing and Cognitive Abilities From Childhood to Middle Age: The National Child Development Study 1958

Previous cross-sectional findings indicate that hearing and cognitive abilities are positively correlated in childhood, adulthood, and older age. We used an unusually valuable longitudinal dataset from a single-year birth cohort study, the National Child Development Study 1958, to test how hearing and cognitive abilities relate to one another across the life course from childhood to middle age. Cognitive ability was assessed with a single test of general cognitive ability at age 11 years and again with multiple tests at age 50. Hearing ability was assessed, using a pure tone audiogram, in childhood at ages 11 and 16 and again at age 44. Associations between childhood and middle-age hearing and cognitive abilities were investigated using structural equation modelling. We found that higher cognitive ability was associated with better hearing (indicated by a lower score on the hearing ability variables); this association was apparent in childhood (r = -0.120, p <0.001) and middle age (r = -0.208, p <0.001). There was a reciprocal relationship between hearing and cognitive abilities over time: better hearing in childhood was weakly associated with a higher cognitive ability in middle age (β = -0.076, p = 0.001), and a higher cognitive ability in childhood was associated with better hearing in middle age (β = -0.163, p <0.001). This latter, stronger effect was mediated by occupational and health variables in adulthood. Our results point to the discovery of a potentially life-long relationship between hearing and cognitive abilities and demonstrate how these variables may influence one another over time.