Age related hearing loss and motor impairment in an oldest old population

Since the audiological evaluation often fails to consider the role of the dynamic interaction between hearing and motor responses, our aim was to study the role of speech audiometry test in oldest old subjects and to relate its results to their quality of life and cognitive and motor impairment. Twenty-three oldest old subjects (mean age 88.7±4.8 years) with age-related hearing loss were submitted to pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, Tinetti Scale and SF-36 questionnaire. The mental score of the SF-36 questionnaire was related only to the intensity required to obtain the highest possible number of correctly repeated words in speech audiometry (p= 0.016). The correlation between motor control and speech test results was significant (p<0.001). Since age-related HL acts on the ability to understand speech and reduces the ability to detect, identify and localise sounds, it is important to add speech tests when studying the hearing difficulties in the oldest old.