Dementia Risk: The Hidden Role of Hearing Loss!

Dementia Risk: The Hidden Role of Hearing Loss!
Dementia Risk: The Hidden Role of Hearing Loss!

United States: A new large-scale investigation of the French population once again supports the association of hearing impairment in adults with dementia.

Since major cognitive decline and no curative treatment exist, understanding factors that can be changed is essential, a team led by Dr. Baptiste Grenier, Université Paris Cité, wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open on October 1.

They claimed that thinking skills are likely to deteriorate not because hearing impaired individuals are socially secluded but because they are deprived of Auditory Stimulation for long periods.

Moreover, they have discovered that hearing loss is associated with reduced auditory volume in significant zones of the brain.

However, researchers stated that hearing aids for patients with disabling hearing loss should be prescribed for a purpose of benefiting patients’ quality of life rather than to treat their deteriorating cognitive function. For that, they wrote, more research is needed.

For the study, Grenier’s team analyzed data from more than 62,000 people in France (average age: 57) admitted between the period of January 2012 and the end of December 2020. Before the interview, participants in the study over 45 years completed a brief test of cognition.

In all, 49% had normal hearing; 38% had mild hearing loss; and 10% had disabling hearing loss but did not use a hearing aid; 3% wore a hearing aid.

In both communicative and cognitive examination, the participants were assessed.

Altogether 27% of patients with unilateral mild tweet and 37% of patients with disabling tweet had impaired cognitive scores. That to 16% participants, whose hearing ability was reported to be normal.

No significant differences in the rates of cognitive decline between the patients with disabling hearing loss wearing a hearing aid and those who did not wear the hearing aid were noted.

Another similar study proposed that hearing aids might help lower the risk of development of dementia in those who have severe deafness besides having depressive tendencies.