난청 노년층의 단어 유창성에 나타난 군집과 전환 특성

Clustering and Switching on Verbal Fluency in Older Adults with Hearing Loss

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine verbal fluency of older adults with hearing loss compared to older adults with normalhearing. Methods: A total of 48 older adults (24 for hearing loss and 24 for normal-hearing) participated. The semantic verbal fluency task were assessed. We analyzed the total number of words generated, clusters, switches and mean cluster size. The hearing-impaired older adults were also evaluated by frontal-executive function tests, which are the Korean-Trail Making Test for the Elderly and the Korean-Color Word Stroop Test. Results: First, the hearing-impaired group produced significantly fewer words than the normal-hearing group, and their production were characterized by fewer switches than the control group. There were no significant differences in the number of clusters and mean cluster size between two groups. Second, for the hearing-impaired group, the total number of words was significantly correlated with number of switches and clusters. On the other hand, in the normal-hearing group, the total number of words was significantly correlated with mean cluster size and number of clusters. Finally, among frontal-executive components, cognitive processing speed was associated with verbal fluency in the hearing-impaired group. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that older adults with hearing loss have lower performance on verbal fluency than their peers with normal-hearing. The decline in frontal lobe functions may adversely affect their verbal fluency.