OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between test scores in attention and hearing loss, sex, age, educational level and socioeconomic status in a group of elderly. METHODS: Participants were 34 subjects, 5 (14.7%) were male and 29 (85.3%) were female. The evaluation consisted of history taking, attention subtest of the instrument of Brief Neuropsychological Assessment (NEUPSILIN) (Fonseca, Salles, Parente, 2009). RESULTS: We found a predominance of elderly aged 60 and 69 years (47%). With respect to hearing, 19 elderly (55.8%) had normal hearing and 15 (44.2%) had hearing loss. No association was found between the score obtained in the test of attention, the presence of hearing loss (p = 0.7) and socioeconomic status (p = 0.8). The variable sex influenced the repetition of digits, where females had higher scores than the males (p = 0.03). As to age, was observed that affected only in reverse subtest score (p = 0.03) and time of care (p = 0.01) since the elderly aged 80 - 86 years had scores significantly lower than the older age groups of children. CONCLUSION: In this sample there was no association between attention, the presence of hearing loss and schooling. We found an association between some aspects of care, age and sex.