Those who don't use hearing aids but should may want to make wearing them one of their New Year's resolutions. For at least two good reasons.
If want to live longer, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC recently published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, show that adults with hearing loss who regularly use hearing aids have a 24 percent lower risk of early death than those who never wear them. This indicates that hearing aids may play a protective role in the health of people with hearing loss.
For the research in the US, 10,000 adults with an average age of 49 had their hearing tested. Almost one in five of them were found to have hearing loss and were asked about how often they used a hearing aid. All of the participants were then tracked for ten years, reports Science Daily. Analysis of the results revealed those who had poor hearing were more likely to die during the period of the study - but those who wore a hearing aid regularly had a 24 percent lower risk of early death than those who did not. This was the case even after adjusting for age, sex, education, socioeconomic status and the severity of the hearing loss.
The study didn’t look at why it might be the case, but previous research has found links between hearing loss and increased rates of depression, dementia and social isolation. Lead author Dr Janet Choi suggested that improved hearing leads to better mental health and healthier, more active lives.
The second good reason? A Lancet Commission report in 2020 on dementia prevention found that hearing loss might be linked to around 8 percent of worldwide dementia cases. As such, addressing hearing issues in older people, such as through the use of hearing aids, might be a way of reducing dementia risk.
“Our study provides the best evidence to date to suggest that hearing aids could be a minimally invasive, cost-effective treatment to mitigate the potential impact of hearing loss on dementia,” said Dongshan Zhu, corresponding author of the study.
The researchers say their findings highlight the need for a society-wide push to raise awareness about hearing loss and its potential links to dementia, in addition to increasing accessibility to hearing aids.