[Evaluation of the montreal cognitive assessment in idiopathic tinnitus patients with mild hearing loss].

Objective

To explore the effect of mild hearing loss on cognitive function by evaluating the Montreal Cognitive Assessment（MoCA） in idiopathic tinnitus patients with mild hearing loss.

Methods

102 patients with idiopathic tinnitus（68 patients with normal hearing and 34 patients with mild hearing loss） whose first complaint is tinnitus and 34 healthy volunteers（control group） were included. All subjects were asked to fill the MoCA, Tinnitus Handicap Inventory（THI）, Self-rating Anxiety Scale（SAS）, Self-rating Depression Scale（SDS）, and Pittsburgh Sleep Index（PQSI） after collecting medical history, pure tone audiometry, tinnitus matching and masking test. The clinical characteristics and scores of each scale were compared among the groups.

Results

The score and each dimension score of MoCA in idiopathic tinnitus patients with normal hearing were significantly lower than the normal population（P<0.05）; compared with patients with idiopathic tinnitus with normal hearing, patients with mild hearing loss were older（P<0.01） and had lower MoCA scores（P<0.05）. There was no significant difference in MoCA scores（P>0.05） between tinnitus patients with normal hearing and mild hearing loss after correcting confounding factors（age, gender, years of education, duration of tinnitus, frequency of tinnitus tones, side of tinnitus, THI score, SAS score, SDS score, and PQSI score）; idiopathic tinnitus patients with mild hearing loss scored significantly lower in attention and working memory dimensions than idiopathic tinnitus patients with normal hearing（P<0.01）.

Conclusion

Patients with idiopathic tinnitus may have cognitive dysfunction, and mild hearing loss may not be a factor that promotes the further aggravation of cognitive dysfunction in patients with idiopathic tinnitus. The role of hearing loss in cognitive dysfunction in patients with idiopathic tinnitus needs further research.