Older people's goals of care in relation to frailty status-the COOP-study.

Background: Literature relating older people's goals of care to their varying frailty status is scarce.

Objective: To investigate goals of care in case of acute and/or severe disease in relationship to frailty status among the general older population.

Method: Older people aged ≥70 in the Netherlands completed a questionnaire.

A study protocol of external validation of eight COVID-19 prognostic models for predicting mortality risk in older populations in a hospital, primary care, and nursing home setting.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has a large impact worldwide and is known to particularly affect the older population. This paper outlines the protocol for external validation of prognostic models predicting mortality risk after presentation with COVID-19 in the older population. These prognostic models were originally developed in an adult population and will be validated in an older population (≥ 70 years of age) in three healthcare settings: the hospital setting, the primary care setting, and the nursing home setting.

The one-up one-down adaptive (staircase) procedure in speech-in-noise testing: Standard error of measurement and fluctuations in the track.

The one-up one-down adaptive (staircase or up-down) procedure is often used to estimate the speech recognition threshold (SRT) in speech-in-noise testing. This article provides a brief historical overview of the one-up one-down procedure in psychophysics, discussing the groundbreaking early work that is still relevant to clinical audiology and scientific research. Next, this article focuses on two aspects of the one-up one-down adaptive procedure: first, the standard error of measurement (SEM) and, second, the fluctuations in the track [i.

Delirium in older COVID-19 patients: Evaluating risk factors and outcomes.

Objectives: A high incidence of delirium has been reported in older patients with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to identify determinants of delirium, including the Clinical Frailty Scale, in hospitalized older patients with COVID-19. Furthermore, we aimed to study the association of delirium independent of frailty with in-hospital outcomes in older COVID-19 patients.

Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic as Experienced by Older Adults Treated for COVID-19.

Background: In order to provide the best care, the perspective of older COVID-19 patients must be involved in the development of treatment protocols. This study describes the experiences of older adults affected by COVID-19 who recovered in the hospital or at home.

Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 older adults affected by COVID-19.

Characteristics and outcomes of older patients hospitalised for COVID-19 in the first and second wave of the pandemic in The Netherlands: the COVID-OLD study.

Background: as the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic progressed diagnostics and treatment changed.

Objective: to investigate differences in characteristics, disease presentation and outcomes of older hospitalised COVID-19 patients between the first and second pandemic wave in The Netherlands.

Methods: this was a multicentre retrospective cohort study in 16 hospitals in The Netherlands including patients aged ≥ 70 years, hospitalised for COVID-19 in Spring 2020 (first wave) and Autumn 2020 (second wave).

Frailty is associated with in-hospital mortality in older hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the Netherlands: the COVID-OLD study.

Background: During the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, older patients had an increased risk of hospitalisation and death. Reports on the association of frailty with poor outcome have been conflicting.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the independent association between frailty and in-hospital mortality in older hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the Netherlands.

Lexical-Access Ability and Cognitive Predictors of Speech Recognition in Noise in Adult Cochlear Implant Users.

Not all of the variance in speech-recognition performance of cochlear implant (CI) users can be explained by biographic and auditory factors. In normal-hearing listeners, linguistic and cognitive factors determine most of speech-in-noise performance. The current study explored specifically the influence of visually measured lexical-access ability compared with other cognitive factors on speech recognition of 24 postlingually deafened CI users.

Morphosyntactic correctness of written language production in adults with moderate to severe congenital hearing loss.

Objective: To examine whether moderate to severe congenital hearing loss (MSCHL) leads to persistent morphosyntactic problems in the written language production of adults, as it does in their spoken language production.

Design: Samples of written language in Dutch were analysed for morphosyntactic correctness and syntactic complexity.

Study Sample: 20 adults with MSCHL and 10 adults with normal hearing (NH).

Change in Psychosocial Health Status Over 5 Years in Relation to Adults' Hearing Ability in Noise.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to establish the longitudinal relationship between hearing ability in noise and psychosocial health outcomes (i.e., loneliness, anxiety, depression, distress, and somatization) in adults aged 18 to 70 years.

The Influence of Linguistic Proficiency on Masked Text Recognition Performance in Adults With and Without Congenital Hearing Impairment.

Objective: The authors first examined the influence of moderate to severe congenital hearing impairment (CHI) on the correctness of samples of elicited spoken language. Then, the authors used this measure as an indicator of linguistic proficiency and examined its effect on performance in language reception, independent of bottom-up auditory processing.

Design: In groups of adults with normal hearing (NH, n = 22), acquired hearing impairment (AHI, n = 22), and moderate to severe CHI (n = 21), the authors assessed linguistic proficiency by analyzing the morphosyntactic correctness of their spoken language production.

The influence of lexical-access ability and vocabulary knowledge on measures of speech recognition in noise.

Objective: The main objective was to investigate the effect of linguistic abilities (lexical-access ability and vocabulary size) on different measures of speech-in-noise recognition in normal-hearing listeners with various levels of language proficiency.

Design: Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for sentences in steady-state (SRTstat) and fluctuating noise (SRTfluc), and for digit-triplets in steady-state noise (DIN). Lexical-access ability was measured with a lexical-decision test and a word-naming test.

Medication Use in Adults with and without Hearing Impairment.

The objective of this study was to determine whether hearing ability in adults is associated with medication use in general, the use of specific types of medication, or polypharmacy. In this exploratory study, data of the National Longitudinal Study on Hearing (NL-SH; n = 2,160) were used. In total, 62% of the participants reported using any medication in the past 28 days.

Deterioration of Speech Recognition Ability Over a Period of 5 Years in Adults Ages 18 to 70 Years: Results of the Dutch Online Speech-in-Noise Test.

Objectives: The first aim of the present study was to determine the change in speech recognition in noise over a period of 5 years in participants ages 18 to 70 years at baseline. The second aim was to investigate whether age, gender, educational level, the level of initial speech recognition in noise, and reported chronic conditions were associated with a change in speech recognition in noise.

Design: The baseline and 5-year follow-up data of 427 participants with and without hearing impairment participating in the National Longitudinal Study on Hearing (NL-SH) were analyzed.

Speech-in-speech listening on the LiSN-S test by older adults with good audiograms depends on cognition and hearing acuity at high frequencies.

Objectives: The main objective was to investigate age-related differences on the listening in spatialized noise-sentences (LiSN-S) test in adults with normal audiometric thresholds in most of the speech range. A second objective was to examine the contributions of auditory, cognitive, and linguistic abilities to LiSN-S outcomes.

Design: The LiSN-S test was administered to participants in an older group (M(Age) = 72.

Assessing speech recognition abilities with digits in noise in cochlear implant and hearing aid users.

Objective: The primary objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the Dutch digits in noise (DIN) test for measuring speech recognition in hearing aid and cochlear implant users and compare results to the standard sentences-in-noise (SIN) test.

Design: The relation between speech reception thresholds for DIN test and SIN test was analysed to determine the validity of the DIN test. As linguistic skills were expected to make different contributions in these tests, their influence was analysed.

Hearing Loss in Older Persons: Does the Rate of Decline Affect Psychosocial Health?

Objective: This study investigates whether the rate of decline in older persons' hearing status is associated with the rate of decrease in their psychosocial health and explores moderation by baseline hearing status, health-related factors, and sociodemographic factors.

Method: Multilevel analyses were applied to data of 1,178 older participants from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), covering 3 to 7 years of follow-up.

Results: Faster decrease in speech-in-noise recognition was significantly associated with more increase in loneliness for persons with a moderate baseline speech-in-noise recognition (emotional and social loneliness) and for persons who recently lost their partner (emotional loneliness).

The influence of informational masking on speech perception and pupil response in adults with hearing impairment.

A recent pupillometry study on adults with normal hearing indicates that the pupil response during speech perception (cognitive processing load) is strongly affected by the type of speech masker. The current study extends these results by recording the pupil response in 32 participants with hearing impairment (mean age 59 yr) while they were listening to sentences masked by fluctuating noise or a single-talker. Efforts were made to improve audibility of all sounds by means of spectral shaping.

Comorbidity in adults with hearing difficulties: which chronic medical conditions are related to hearing impairment?

Objectives: To investigate the occurrence of 27 chronic medical conditions in a cohort of adults with and without hearing impairment, and to examine the association between these conditions and hearing ability.

Design: The National Longitudinal Study on Hearing (NL-SH study) is a large prospective study among adults aged 18 to 70 years, conducted via the internet in the Netherlands. Hearing ability was measured with a digits-in-noise test and comorbidity was assessed through self-report.

Why do patients and caregivers seek answers from the Internet and online lung specialists? A qualitative study.

Background: Since its launch in 2003, the Dutch Lung Cancer Information Center's (DLIC) website has become increasingly popular. The most popular page of the website is the section "Ask the Physician", where visitors can ask an online lung specialist questions anonymously and receive an answer quickly. Most questions were not only asked by lung cancer patients but also by their informal caregivers.

Decline in older persons' ability to recognize speech in noise: the influence of demographic, health-related, environmental, and cognitive factors.

Objectives: The first aim was to investigate whether the rate of decline in older persons' ability to recognize speech in noise over time differs across age and gender. The second aim was to determine extent demographic, health-related, environmental, and cognitive factors influence the change in speech-in-noise recognition over time.

Design: Data covering 3 to 7 years of follow-up (mean: 4.

The relationship between hearing status and the participation in different categories of work: demographics.

Objective: To investigate the association between hearing status, socioeconomic status and work status.

Participants: Cross-sectional data of 18-64 year old participants (N=1888) from the National Longitudinal Study on Hearing (NL-SH) were used. Both normal hearing and hearing impaired subjects participated.

Vocational rehabilitation services for people with hearing difficulties: a systematic review of the literature.

Objective: The goal of this review was to list and summarize work-related health programs for employees with hearing difficulties and to summarize the statistical evidence of the effectiveness of these programs.

Methods: A systematic review was performed by searching the PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and The Cochrane Library databases for relevant citations. From 2313 unique citations retrieved from the search strategy, we included nine programs that met all inclusion criteria.

Dual sensory loss: A major age-related increase of comorbid hearing loss and hearing aid ownership in visually impaired adults.

Aim: Despite increasing interest in visual and hearing impairment in the older population, little attention has been paid to concurrent hearing and vision loss, also known as dual sensory loss. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of comorbid hearing disability and hearing aid ownership in visually impaired older adults.

Methods: In a cross-sectional survey, a self-report hearing disability screener was administered to 1396 visually impaired patients (aged ≥ 50 years) of outpatient low vision rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands and Belgium.

How linguistic closure and verbal working memory relate to speech recognition in noise--a review.

The ability to recognize masked speech, commonly measured with a speech reception threshold (SRT) test, is associated with cognitive processing abilities. Two cognitive factors frequently assessed in speech recognition research are the capacity of working memory (WM), measured by means of a reading span (Rspan) or listening span (Lspan) test, and the ability to read masked text (linguistic closure), measured by the text reception threshold (TRT). The current article provides a review of recent hearing research that examined the relationship of TRT and WM span to SRTs in various maskers.