Cognitive Reserve in the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Community: An Exploration of Contributing Factors

Cognitive reserve (CR) refers to the individual differences in how people execute tasks, allowing some to cope with cognitive challenges more effectively than others. Additionally, previous studies have established a link between age-related hearing loss and cognitive decline. However, CR and cognitive aging have not been explored extensively in those who might identify as Deaf/hard of hearing (HH). There are four features potentially unique to this community that could shape one’s CR: use of hearing technology (e.g., hearing aid), bimodal bilingualism, and social connectedness and social support. One hundred fifty-nine Deaf/hard of hearing participants completed an online survey study assessing hearing technology usefulness, bilingual status, social connectedness and social support, and CR using the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire. Hearing technology usefulness ratings were significantly positively associated with social support. Unexpectedly, social connectedness was significantly correlated with ASL proficiency, suggesting lower social connectedness was related to greater ASL proficiency. CR was significantly correlated with social connectedness scores, such that greater CR was associated with higher social connectedness. All predictors of interest (i.e., hearing technology usefulness, bilingualism, social connectedness, social support), along with age of deafness and SES, did not significantly predict CR. Age accounted for most of the variance in CR, but there was not much change in variance once the predictors were added to the model. Although this study is the first to examine these potential contributors that may be specific to the Deaf/HH community, the study was limited in its measurement of constructs. Therefore, future studies may need to explore more comprehensive measures.