“For more than a decade, we have known that hearing loss contributes to cognitive decline and the risk of dementia. But we didn’t know if intervention with hearing aids and hearing aid services could reduce this risk,” says Frank Lin, professor of geriatric medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Today, it’s done thanks to a targeted study conducted by the doctor and his team.
In a group of 977 patients with an average age of 76 and mild hearing loss, some were fitted with hearing aids and adopted auditory rehabilitation techniques, while the others participated in an advice-based program hygiene and information to help you age well. For three years, all were carefully monitored. Their cognitive performance was measured at the start and end of the clinical trial. At the end of the study, the researchers initially found no differences between the two groups. But on studying the results a little closer, everything changed…
Indeed, the results showed that the hearing aids were effective with certain patients: those who were at increased risk of cognitive decline due to risk factors such as low education or income, diabetes or hypertension, living alone… “Treating the hearing loss almost halved the rate of loss of thinking and memory skills,” says Frank Lin. Indeed, patients with dementia risk factors (including Alzheimer’s disease) who wore a hearing aid experienced a 48% slower cognitive decline compared to other patients with the same profile.
While further studies will be needed to confirm this finding, especially over the long term, the potential of hearing aids to fight dementia is significant: while two-thirds of people over the age of 60 suffer from hearing loss , only 3 out of 10 are fitted in high-income countries (and even fewer in low-income countries). A study published in 2020 estimated that of the 10 million new cases of dementia diagnosed each year, 800,000 are attributable to hearing loss.