A new long-term study that shows wearing hearing aids reduce cognitive decline associated with hearing loss may do more than just drive older adults with hearing loss to finally seek professional care. This new study will also give the general public—especially health-conscious older adults—a new way of thinking about the importance of hearing care and hearing solutions that will have far-reaching implications for hearing care now and in the future.
“Self-Reported Hearing Loss: Hearing Aids and Cognitive Decline in Elderly Adults: A 25-year Study,” published in the October edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, compared the trajectory of cognitive decline among older adults who were using hearing aids and those who were not. The study found no difference in the rate of cognitive decline between a control group of people with no reported hearing loss and people with hearing loss who used hearing aids. By contrast, untreated hearing loss was significantly associated with lower baseline scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination, a well-established test of cognitive function, during the 25-year follow-up period, independent of age, gender, and education.
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