OnMedica – News – Wearing a hearing aid can help protect the brain later in life

A study indicates that wearing hearing aids could boost some aspects of memory and attention in healthy older people

People who wear hearing aids for age-related hearing problems maintain better brain function over time, suggest a study conducted by the University of Exeter and King's College London and presented in a poster at the International Conference of the Alzheimer's Association in Los Angeles.

Previous research has suggested that hearing loss is a significant risk factor for dementia, and now the PROTECT An online study suggests that wearing a hearing aid can mitigate this risk.

The study included 25,000 people aged 50 and over who underwent annual cognitive tests over two years. The participants were divided into two groups – one group wearing a hearing aid and the other not. After two years, group members who wore hearing aids performed better in terms of working memory and aspects of attention than those who did not wear them. In one case, people wearing hearing aids had faster reaction times – in everyday life, this reflected concentration, for example, "striving to hear a sound", "looking at near an object of great interest "or" listen attentively to someone who speaks ".

Anne Corbett, director of PROTECT, University of Exeter, said: "Previous research has shown that hearing loss is related to a loss of brain function, memory, and memory loss. at an increased risk of dementia.Our work is one of the most important to date.The impact of the wearing of a hearing aid and suggests that the wearing of a hearing aid could actually Protect the brain We now need more research and a clinical trial to test it and perhaps fuel the policies to help people stay healthy later in life. "

Professor Clive Ballard, of the University of Exeter's Faculty of Medicine, said: "This is an early discovery that requires further investigation, but The message is that if you are informed that you need a hearing aid, it works for you – at a minimum, it will improve your hearing and could also help keep your brain on alert. "

Dr. Jana Voigt, Head of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, commented on the findings: "This large-scale study indicates that wearing hearing aids could boost aspects of memory and attention elderly people in good health, but it remains to be seen if this can reduce the risk of developing dementia. This is an exciting result that will have to be the subject of additional clinical trials. If they are effective, encouraging people to wear hearing aids could be a simple but effective way to reduce the risk of dementia. "

Dr. Martin Coath, badociate lecturer at the University of Plymouth, said: "Hearing loss is a type of social isolation because, for example, it can be difficult to follow a conversation in a noisy room. Hearing impaired people who choose to use high quality hearing aids will likely continue to enjoy social experiences and conversations, while those who do not use hearing aids may choose to live less often. Social and sensory interactions because they are more difficult. Therefore, one of the possible reasons why this early-stage study establishes a connection between the use of a hearing aid and better brain function is that those who use a hearing aid remain engaged and They are actively interested in all kinds of sensory and social experiences. It may be that when the full study will be published, the data will show that more or less everything you can do to support continued physical and intellectual activity with age will have a measurable protective effect on the functioning of the brain. "