People with hearing loss are at a higher risk of dementia compared to those who do not have a hearing loss, according to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Public Health.¹ The study further showed that the use of hearing aids could reduce this risk to the level similar to people without hearing loss.

For this study, researchers analysed data of 437,704 people, average age 56 years, from the UK Biobank database of which 111,822 had self-reported hearing loss; 54% of the study participants were women. The average follow-up time was 12 years. The study aimed to examine the association between hearing loss with or without hearing aids and risk of dementia (all-cause dementia, vascular dementia, Alzheimers disease and non-Alzheimers disease non-vascular dementia. Just 12% of patients with hearing loss used hearing aids.

After adjusting for confounding variables, the study subjects with hearing loss but who did not use a hearing aid increased their risk of all-cause dementia by 42% with hazard ratio of 1.42, whereas people with hearing loss who used hearing aids were not at increased risk of dementia (HR (1.04). The overall risk of dementia among people with hearing loss without hearing aids was 1.7%. This risk declined to 1.2% with the use of hearing aids, which is similar to those without any hearing loss. The impact of other factors such as loneliness, social isolation and depressive symptoms on the association between hearing loss and dementia was also examined in the study. Less than 8% of the association could be removed by reducing depressive mood. 2.3% could be removed by reducing loneliness and 1.5% by reducing social isolation.

This study draws attention to the association of hearing loss with dementia and highlights the protective role of hearing aids in reducing dementia risk. Hence, patients in the early stages of hearing loss should be encouraged to use hearing aids to mitigate the risk of cognitive impairment.

Reference

1. Fan Jiang, et al. Association between hearing aid use and all-cause and cause-specific dementia: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort. Lancet Public Health, April 13, 2023. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00048-8