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Hearing Loss Rehabilitation and Its Contribution to Cognitive-Linguistic Performance in Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review

Rehabilitación de la pérdida auditiva y su contribución al desempeño cognitivo-lingüístico en adultos mayores sanos: una revisión sistemática



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Mansilla-Jara F, Julio-Ramos T, Godoy–Díaz Álvaro, Solomons D, Cigarroa I, Toloza-Ramirez D. Hearing Loss Rehabilitation and Its Contribution to Cognitive-Linguistic Performance in Healthy Older Adults: A Systematic Review. Rev. Investig. Innov. Cienc. Salud [Internet]. 2025 Feb. 25 [cited 2025 Apr. 23];7(2):1-19. Available from: https://riics.info/index.php/RCMC/article/view/363

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Francisca Mansilla-Jara,

Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute; School of Speech Therapy; Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences; Universidad Andrés Bello; Santiago; Chile.


Teresa Julio-Ramos,

PhD Program in Health Sciences and Engineering; Universidad de Valparaíso; Valparaíso; Chile.


Álvaro Godoy–Díaz,

YunqueMed; Temuco; Chile.


Daniel Solomons,

1 Millennium Institute for Intelligent Healthcare Engineering (iHEALTH); Santiago; Chile.
2 Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Santiago; Chile.


Igor Cigarroa,

School of Physical Therapy; Faculty of Health Sciences; Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez; Santiago; Chile.


David Toloza-Ramirez,

1 Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute; School of Speech Therapy; Faculty of Rehabilitation Sciences; Universidad Andrés Bello; Santiago; Chile.

2 Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience; Faculty of Medicine; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Santiago; Chile.


Introduction. Hearing loss (HL) rehabilitation involves using different hearing technologies, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants. The efficacy of HL rehabilitation strategies and their cognitive benefits has been reported for clinical populations, such as those with mild cognitive impairment or dementia. However, up to date, there is no clarity about the cognitive-linguistic implications of HL rehabilitation for healthy older adults. Therefore, increasing knowledge about its benefits in healthy older people is critical to generating early intervention strategies that could delay the progression to pathological stages.

Aim. To profile cognitive-linguistic performance after HL rehabilitation in healthy older adults.

Methodology. Systematic literature review following the PRISMA guidelines. We included randomized and non-randomized clinical trials from Medline by PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases (January 2000 to May 2024).

Results. We identified 410 titles, from which five papers were qualitatively analyzed. Results suggest that after HL rehabilitation, healthy older adults improve their performance in specific abilities such as working memory, delayed recall, attention, semantic and phonological fluency, and language comprehension. We highlight an association between working memory improvement and semantic skills' benefits, especially in subjects with mild to moderate HL.

Conclusion. HL rehabilitation programs should consider cognitive-linguistic stimulation programs in healthy older adults to prevent cognitive dysfunction or neurodegenerative conditions. We only analyzed a few studies; thus, we suggest interpreting the information carefully. Indeed, promoting more follow-up studies to clarify the benefits of using hearing devices and their cognitive-linguistic implications in healthy people is still necessary.


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