TABLE 1.
Baseline demographic, functional, and clinical characteristics including hearing aid usage and communication function of ACHIEVE participants stratified by randomly assigned treatment.
| Total | Control | Hearing intervention | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N = 923 | N = 462 | N = 461 | p‐value | |
| Demographics | ||||
| Age, years, mean (SD) | 76.7 (4.0) | 77.0 (4.0) | 77.5 (4.0) | 0.07 |
| Sex, N (%) | 0.92 | |||
| Male | 434 (47.0) | 218 (47.2) | 216 (46.9) | |
| Female | 489 (53.0) | 244 (52.8) | 245 (53.2) | |
| Race, N (%) | 0.60 | |||
| White | 811 (87.9) | 401 (86.8) | 410 (88.9) | |
| Black | 105 (11.4) | 57 (12.3) | 48 (10.4) | |
| Other | 7 (0.8) | 4 (0.9) | 3 (0.7) | |
| Education, N (%) | 0.96 | |||
| Less than high school | 36 (3.9) | 18 (3.9) | 18 (3.9) | |
| High school or some college | 398 (43.1) | 197 (42.6) | 201 (43.6) | |
| College or more | 489 (53.0) | 247 (53.5) | 242 (52.5) | |
| Marital status, N (%) | 0.27 | |||
| Married | 571 (61.9) | 294 (63.6) | 277 (60.1) | |
| Not married | 352 (38.1) | 168 (36.4) | 184 (39.9) | |
| Living alone, N (%) | 279 (30.2) | 131 (28.4) | 148 (32.1) | 0.21 |
| Household income, N (%) | 0.08 | |||
| <$25,000 | 143 (15.5) | 72 (15.6) | 71 (15.4) | |
| $25,000–$49,999 | 275 (29.8) | 122 (26.4) | 153 (33.2) | |
| $50,000–$74,999 | 207 (22.4) | 119 (25.8) | 88 (19.1) | |
| $75,000–$100,000 | 137 (14.8) | 71 (15.4) | 66 (14.3) | |
| >$100,000 | 161 (17.4) | 78 (16.9) | 83 (18.0) | |
| Recruitment route descriptions | ||||
| Field center, N (%) | 0.89 | |||
| Forsyth County, NC | 221 (23.9) | 113 (24.5) | 108 (23.4) | |
| Jackson, MS | 235 (25.5) | 121 (26.2) | 114 (24.7) | |
| Minneapolis suburbs, MN | 215 (23.3) | 106 (22.9) | 109 (23.6) | |
| Washington County, MD | 252 (27.3) | 122 (26.4) | 130 (28.2) | |
| Recruitment route, N (%) | 0.74 | |||
| ARIC | 216 (23.4) | 106 (22.9) | 110 (23.9) | |
| De novo | 707 (76.6) | 356 (77.1) | 351 (76.1) | |
| Participant part of a spousal pair, N (%) | 86 (9.3) | 43 (9.3) | 43 (9.3) | 0.99 |
| Baseline functional and clinical characteristics | ||||
| Hypertension, a N (%) | 530 (57.4) | 271 (58.7) | 259 (56.2) | 0.45 |
| Diabetes, b N (%) | 183 (19.8) | 85 (18.4) | 98 (21.3) | 0.28 |
| Drinking status, N (%) | 0.85 | |||
| Current | 524 (56.8) | 260 (56.3) | 264 (57.3) | |
| Former | 230 (24.9) | 114 (24.7) | 116 (25.2) | |
| Never | 169 (18.3) | 88 (19.1) | 81 (17.6) | |
| Cigarette smoking, N (%) | 0.25 | |||
| Current | 24 (2.6) | 8 (1.7) | 16 (3.5) | |
| Former | 421 (45.6) | 213 (46.1) | 208 (45.1) | |
| Never | 478 (51.8) | 241 (52.2) | 237 (51.4) | |
| CES‐depression, c mean (SD) | 2.5 (2.5) | 2.4 (2.4) | 2.5 (2.7) | 0.68 |
| UCLA loneliness, mean (SD) | 32.8 (8.5) | 32.6 (8.5) | 32.9 (8.5) | 0.60 |
| Prorated MMSE, d mean (SD) | 28.2 (1.6) | 28.2 (1.6) | 28.2 (1.6) | 0.93 |
| Global cognition factor score, e mean (SD) | 0.0 (0.9) | 0.0 (0.9) | 0.0 (1.0) | 0.92 |
| Better‐ear PTA, f mean (SD) | 39.4 (6.9) | 39.3 (6.7) | 39.6 (7.1) | 0.55 |
| Baseline HHIE‐S score (continuous), mean (SD) | 15.4 (9.8) | 15.0 (9.4) | 15.8 (10.2) | 0.24 |
| Baseline HHIE‐S score (categorical), g N (%) | 0.85 | |||
| No hearing handicap (HHIE‐S <10) | 287 (31.1) | 145 (31.4) | 142 (30.8) | |
| Mild or greater handicap (HHIE‐S ≥10) | 636 (68.9) | 317 (68.6) | 319 (69.2) | |
| Hearing aid usage, h mean (SD) | 6.6 (4.5) | – | 6.6 (4.5) | |
Abbreviations: ARIC, Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study; MD, Maryland; MN, Minnesota; MS, Mississippi; NC, North Carolina; SD, standard deviation; UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Hypertension was defined as measured systolic blood pressure ≥140, diastolic blood pressure ≥90, or self‐reported medication use for lowering blood pressure.
Diabetes was defined as measured fasting blood glucose ≥126 mg/dL, non‐fasting level ≥200 mg/dL, self‐reported diagnosis of diabetes by a physician, or self‐reported medication use for diabetes.
Depression was defined with the 11‐item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES‐D) Scale which measures frequency of depressive symptoms in the past week. No depressive symptomology: score range: 0–9; Depressive symptomology: score range: 9.
Mini‐Mental State Examination [MMSE] was used to measure baseline cognition. A MMSE score ≥23 for participants with a high school degree or less, ≥25 for participants with some college education or more was used to define normal cognition.
Global cognition factor score was derived from a comprehensive neurocognitive battery. Tests included delayed word recall, digit symbol substitution, incidental learning, trail making parts A and B, logical memory, digit span backwards, Boston naming, word fluency, and animal naming. Standardized factor scores were developed using a latent variable modeling approach that has been previously used and validated.
Hearing was measured audiometrically and summarized with a 4‐frequency pure tone average (0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz; pure‐tone average [PTA]) for the better‐hearing ear.
HHIE‐S = Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly—Screening version (HHIE‐S) scores has the following clinical scaling No Handicap (0–8), Mild–Moderate (10–24), and Severe (26–40).
Hearing aid usage was defined by a time‐weighted average of datalogging of the hearing aid use per day between baseline and Year 3. A total of 392 participants had information for average number of hearing aid use between baseline and Year 3.