In clinical practice, the transformative effects of treating hearing loss via various interventions like stapes surgery, cochlear implantation, or hearing aids have been self-evident, significantly impacting patients’ social interactions, exhaustion levels, and connectivity with loved ones. Recent studies indicate that untreated hearing loss in older adults is linked to social isolation, frequent falls, higher healthcare costs, and increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. The Lancet Commission on Dementia, 2020, estimated hearing loss as perhaps the most significant modifiable risk factor for dementia prevention, contributing to about 8% of global dementia cases.
Three hypothesized mechanisms explain how hearing loss could precipitate cognitive decline. First, the degraded peripheral encoding of sound necessitates extra cortical resources, reducing availability for cognitive function. Second, diminished auditory stimulation can cause atrophy over areas responsible for auditory processing, affecting brain structural integrity. Third, hearing loss induces communication difficulties, thereby leading to social isolation, which is another dementia risk factor.
Hearing interventions, theoretically, can modify these risk pathways, potentially reducing the incidence of dementia by enhancing communication ability, reducing cognitive load, increasing brain stimulation, and facilitating social engagement. The Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders (ACHIEVE) study has started exploring this hypothesis. In publishing some early results (see full publication at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014067362301406X?dgcid=author), the study looked at 977 older adults with untreated hearing loss and examined whether hearing interventions could reduce long-term cognitive decline. Participants, after being assigned to use of hearing aids or a health education control intervention, were observed for three years.
The overall findings were inconclusive on a broad scale, but a significant reduction in 3-year cognitive change by 48% was observed in participants from the ARIC heart study, a group with increased risk factors for cognitive decline, while no effect was detected in the healthier, newly recruited volunteers. The disparate rate of cognitive decline between the two groups, a 3-fold faster rate in ARIC study patients with cardiovascular comorbidities, was believed to account for this difference, with the effects of intervention more observable in participants with faster cognitive decline rates within the limited span of the study.
Continued observation is in progress to analyze the long-term effects, as this study suggests a potential breakthrough in dementia prevention, especially considering the projections of over 150 million individuals living with dementia by 2050. The study underscores the urgency of policy amendments to enhance access and coverage for hearing aids and related technologies and services. Current endeavors include support for over-the-counter hearing aid act regulations, collaborations to advance consumer-friendly hearing monitoring technologies, and legislative efforts for Medicare reform. These findings can revolutionize individual clinical care approaches and global public health strategies in addressing the burgeoning concern of dementia in the aging global population, reinforcing the role of hearing interventions as a pivotal component in holistic dementia prevention.
Learn more about the study at https://www.ACHIEVEstudy.org.
Unlike big box stores like Costco, Ear & Hearing | Center for Neurosciences is in the business of managing hearing loss, not in the business of selling hearing aids. We offer the full spectrum of hearing health services, including diagnostic testing, medical/surgical evaluation, state of the art fitting for hearing aids, and just about every implantable hearing device known to man. Improving one’s hearing is no longer just about hearing friends or family; it is about managing dementia risk.
Don’t be the victim of misdiagnosis or predatory hearing aid sales. Come in for an evaluation today!