About one in three adults ages 65 to 74 have hearing loss, and almost half of people older than 75 have trouble hearing, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Age-related hearing loss can lead to a wide variety of health problems, as it touches on many aspects of daily life, making it harder for people to keep up with conversations, maintain a normal social life and follow a doctor’s advice about medical problems.
The amount of attention to age-related hearing loss has been growing, not only from the perspective of being one of the most common health conditions affecting older adults, but also in terms of its relation to cognition.
Results from a number of studies have demonstrated a significant link between age-related hearing loss and cognitive decline, impaired performance across cognitive domains, and increased risk for dementia diagnosis.
Researchers examined data on 7,385 adults 50 and older without a diagnosis of dementia or other conditions tied to cognitive problems and without hearing implants or ear infections. Overall, about 41 percent had mild hearing loss, 10 percent had severe hearing loss, and 11 percent used a hearing aid.
Key Finding: People with mild to moderate hearing loss did score lower on memory assessments than individuals with perfect hearing, the study found. But this was only true for people who didn’t use hearing aids.
“Not correcting for hearing loss results in social isolation which in turn results in us not utilizing many of our neural networks in the brain on a regular basis,” said study co-author Gurleen Popli of the University of Sheffield. “This could possibly explain the cognitive decline.”
Age-related hearing loss may represent a modifiable condition and a possible target for secondary prevention of cognitive impairment in older age, social isolation, late-life depression, and frailty.
The results of this study suggest that screening people 50 and older for hearing loss and then treating it as early as possible could potentially delay or prevent the onset of dementia or cognitive impairment.
Source: JAMA