Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission is an interesting report with all sorts of good advice. In the report, the authors talk about Hearing Impairment. Hearing loss had the highest population attributable fraction (PAFs) of dementia in our first report, using a meta-analysis of studies of people with normal baseline cognition and hearing loss. A cross-sectional study of 6,451 individuals designed to be representative of the US population, with a mean age of 59·4 years, found a decrease in cognition with every 10 dB reduction in hearing, which continued to below the clinical threshold so that subclinical levels of hearing impairment (below 25 dB) were significantly related to lower cognition.
Hearing
aids
A 25-year prospective study of 3,777 people aged 65 years or older found increased dementia incidence in those with self-reported hearing problems except in those using hearing aids. Similarly, a cross-sectional study found hearing loss was only associated with worse cognition in those not using hearing aids. A US nationally representative survey of 2,040 people older than 50 years, tested every two years for 18 years, found immediate and delayed recall deteriorated less after initiation of hearing aid use, adjusting for other risk factors. Hearing aid use was the largest factor protecting from decline adjusting for protective and harmful factors. The long follow-up times in these prospective studies suggest hearing aid use is protective, rather than the possibility that those developing dementia are less likely to use hearing aids. Hearing loss might result in cognitive decline through reduced cognitive stimulation.
So bottom line, if you need a hearing aid, get one or you may have
a good chance of getting dementia as you age.
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