Abstract
Hearing loss is the third most prevalent health condition in older age. In recent years, research has consistently reported an association between hearing loss and mental health outcomes, including poorer cognitive performances. Whether treating hearing loss in elders improves cognition has been directly or indirectly addressed by several studies. This review aims at providing a synthesis of those results. Regarding the literature on hearing aids’ use and cognition, although the lack of interventional studies has to be underlined, observational data suggest that hearing aids positively impact long-term cognition, even though more research is necessary to ascertain this statement and provide information on the length or frequency of use required in order to observe benefits. Regarding cochlear implants in elders experiencing more severe auditory deprivation, the literature is scarcer. The available studies have many limitations and do not allow the drawing of clear conclusions. Taken together, the results are encouraging. Nevertheless, because hearing loss is suspected to account for 9% of dementia cases, and also because hearing loss is one of the few potentially modifiable factors from a dementia prevention perspective, the need to stimulate research to have clearer knowledge of the benefits of treating hearing loss on cognitive outcomes is urgent.
Highlights
The global increase in life expectancy is obviously one of the major health achievements of the past 150 years, since, for the first time in history, most people worldwide can expect to live into their sixties and beyond
Scientific research consistently highlighted the association between hearing loss in elders and numerous mental health outcomes, among which depressive symptoms have been frequently reported, as concluded by a recent meta-analysis of 35 studies, where hearing loss in older adults was associated with an increased risk of experiencing depression [4]
It is noteworthy that two such tools have been recently developed: the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status for Hearing-Impaired individuals (RBANS-H) [38] providing audiovisual presentation of the instructions and the test items and the Hearing-Impaired Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HI-MoCA) [39], an adaptation of the MoCA
Summary
The global increase in life expectancy is obviously one of the major health achievements of the past 150 years, since, for the first time in history, most people worldwide can expect to live into their sixties and beyond. Numerous studies involving longitudinal follow-up of participants reported an accelerated cognitive decline with advancing age in older adults suffering from hearing impairment compared to those with no hearing loss [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23], results that have been updated and synthesized in several review papers [24,25,26] With such a body of evidence on the link between hearing loss and accelerated age-related cognitive decline, the question of whether hearing loss increases the risk of developing neurocognitive disorders arises. Treatment of Hearing Impairment in Older Adults and Impact on Cognitive Decline
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