Wearing hearing aids may help stabilize cognitive functions in older adults with hearing loss, reducing the risk of dementia, a new study suggests.
- New research shows that hearing aids can stabilize cognitive function in older adults with hearing loss.
- Researchers estimate that this saves at least three years.
- So for scientists, the use of hearing aids may constitute an important public health strategy on a large scale to delay cognitive decline.
Several studies have confirmed that hearing loss is linked to accelerated cognitive decline and increases the risk of dementia through a domino effect. This association raises growing concerns about the cognitive health of older adults with hearing loss. However, new research led by the University of Melbourne, published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, brings good news. It shows that wearing hearing aids helps stabilize cognitive function.
Hearing aids: they preserve cognitive functions
The University of Melbourne study followed two groups of hearing-impaired seniors for three years: one using hearing aids and the other not. “We assessed cognitive performance using computerized card games, starting before hearing aids were fitted and then at 18-month intervals. And we only used visual instructions, because giving audio instructions to hearing-impaired people without hearing aids could have given us misleading results”explain the authors in a communicated.
The data showed that people fitted with hearing aids significantly maintained cognitive performance over the 3 years of the study, while those without hearing aids did not. For their part, they had experienced a marked decline in three of the four cognitive tests.
Dementia: hearing aids can help reduce risks
Beyond a higher risk of dementia, hearing loss has also been linked to a higher risk of falls, hospitalizations, depression and death. Faced with their results, the scientists believe that “hearing aid use may be an important large-scale public health strategy to delay cognitive decline, thereby helping to reduce or slow the global burden of dementia.”
“Being able to hear and maintain effective communication and connections with others promotes not only cognitive health, but also healthy aging and better quality of life”they recall.
