Could hearing aids help prevent dementia? New study finds possible link
Your hearing could play a role in the risk of developing dementia — and hearing aids could be an important tool in countering that.
A new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examined 2,413 older adults — ages 65 and older — and found those with more severe hearing loss were also more likely to also develop dementia.
However, the study found, that risk was reduced when the person used hearing aids.
“Hearing loss is a critical public health issue affecting two-thirds of Americans over 70,” according to a news release from researchers.
While previous studies linked hearing loss and dementia, the new research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, goes outside of a clinical setting and includes in-home testing and interviews to better understand the connection.
Researchers used data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, from the National Institute on Aging, to conduct an analysis of thousands of older Americans. Half of the study participants were over 80 years old and showed a clear connection between severe hearing loss and the development of dementia.
“Prevalence of dementia among the participants with moderate/severe hearing loss was 61 percent higher than prevalence among participants who had normal hearing,” and hearing aids reduced the risk even further — 32 percent — in over 800 participants with “moderate” or “severe” hearing loss, according to the release.
That means the risk of developing dementia after hearing loss was reduced by nearly one-third in participants using a hearing aid.
The researchers note that while there is a clear correlation between hearing loss and dementia, how exactly the two are linked is still unknown, requiring more research in the future. The study cites previous research estimating 8 percent of dementia cases worldwide were caused by hearing loss.
“This study refines what we’ve observed about the link between hearing loss and dementia, and builds support for public health action to improve hearing care access,” lead author Alison Huang, from the department of epidemiology and the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at the Bloomberg School, said in the release.
