Hearing Loss and Cognitive Health Strongly Correlate
Recent studies provide important new insights on the relationship between hearing health and cognitive health, and the great potential of hearing intervention to slow down the decline of thinking and memory.1,2 According to the ACHIEVE study1 by John Hopkins University, wearing hearing aids can slow down the loss of thinking and memory abilities by 48% over 3 years in older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline. The ENHANCE study2 by Prof. Julia Sarant of the University of Melbourne found that people in the hearing aid intervention group maintained their cognitive abilities over three years, while those without hearing intervention showed a decline in cognition over the same period.
References:
1 Lin, F. R., Pike, J. R., Albert, M. S., Arnold, M., Burgard, S., Chisolm, T., Couper, D., Deal, J. A., Goman, A. M., Glynn, N. W., Gmelin, T., Gravens-Mueller, L., Hayden, K. M., Huang, A. R., Knopman, D., Mitchell, C. M., Mosley, T., Pankow, J. S., Reed, N. S., Sanchez, V., … ACHIEVE Collaborative Research Group (2023). Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet (London, England), 402(10404), 786–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01406-X
2 Sarant, J. Z., Busby, P. A., Schembri, A. J., Harris, D. C., Fowler, C. (2023). ENHANCE: A Comparative prospective longitudinal study of cognitive outcomes after 3 years of hearing aid use in older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 15. DOI 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1302185.
