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Determining the Connections Between Dementia and

Hearing Loss

For those reading this who have

experienced some form of hearing

impairment, do you ever find yourself

having to work very hard to understand

what’s being said to you or around you?

You are not alone. The sense that

listening and understanding is tiring work

is typical among people with hearing loss

– even those that use hearing aids.

Your hearing may not be the only variable that is impacted; cognitive functions

can be as well. Recent studies have revealed that there is a solid relationship

between hearing loss and the odds of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia.

A study that was conducted by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on 639

volunteers ages 36 to 90 over a period of 16 years indicated that 58 study

volunteers – 9% of the total – had developed dementia and 37 – 6 %- had

developed Alzheimer’s disease. The level of hearing loss was positively

correlated with the probability of developing either disorder. For every 10

decibel further of hearing loss, the risk of developing dementia went up by

20%.

A separate research study of 1,984 people, also 16 years long, showed

comparable results connecting hearing loss and dementia. In this study,

researchers also found degradation of cognitive capabilities among the

hearing-impaired over the course of the project. The hearing-impaired

participants showed reduced thinking capacity and memory loss 40% faster

than participants with normal hearing. An even more astonishing conclusion

in each of the two research studies was that the link between hearing loss and

dementia held true even if the participants used hearing aids.

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The connection between hearing impairment and loss of cognitive functions is

an open area of research, but researchers have suggested a few theories to

explain the results observed to date. One of these explanations relates to the

question that began this article, about needing to work harder to hear; this

has been termed cognitive overload. The cognitive overload theory suggests

that the hearing-impaired individual expends so much brain energy working

to hear, that the brain tires itself out and has a diminished capacity to

understand and absorb verbal information. The ensuing lack of comprehension

may cause social isolation, a factor that has been shown in other research

studies to lead to dementia. A second theory is that neither dementia nor

hearing loss is the cause of the other, but that each are caused by an unknown

mechanism that could be genetic, vascular, or environmental.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from these results. For those who

wear hearing aids, it is essential to have your hearing aids re-fitted and re-

programmed on a regular basis. You don’t want to make your brain work

harder than it needs to in order to hear. The less you have to strain, the more

cognitive power your brain has in reserve to comprehend what is said, and

remember it too. If you have questions about your hearing or the current

settings of your hearing aids, please call our office to speak with one of our

six audiologists.