O-DEM: a cognitive screening test for hearing-impaired

Introduction: Elderly patients with hearing impairment often also suffer from cognitive deficits. To detect these at an early stage, a screening test suitable for the clinical routine is needed. The O-DEM is a neurocognitive screening test consisting of three subtests of commonly used test batteries (subtraction task of the MMST, the TMT-A and supermarket task of the DemTect) and has already been tested on a large group of normal hearing subjects. The aim of this study was to evaluate the O-DEM in hearing impaired subjects.

Material and Methods  213 hearing impaired subjects (10.8% mild, 43.2% moderate, 32.4% profound and 13.6% severe according to WHO criteria) and a mean age of 68.02 (SD 8.97) were included. In addition to the O-DEM, other tests (HI-MoCA, task 4 of the LPS 50+, FAS, and TMT-B) were performed. To determine sensitivity and specificity, ROC analysis compared subjects without and with cognitive impairment. Results: The O-DEM showed a moderate to strong correlation with the HI-MoCA, LPS 50+, FAS, and TMT-B (<0.05). Lower test scores on the O-DEM were associated with poorer performance on the HI-MoCA, LPS 50+, and FAS, and longer processing time on the TMT-B. Categorizing the samples into cognitive impaired and cognitive unimpaired according to the TMT-B, the ROC analysis revealed comparable high values of the AUCs of the O-DEM and the HI-MoCA (0.85 vs. 0.80).

Conclusion/Discussion  The O-DEM, although not covering all cognitive domains such as visual-executive functions, seems to be a suitable screening tool. However, it cannot replace a complex cognitive test battery or a neuropsychological examination.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023