Hearing Problems and Dementia

Elderly individuals with limited or weak hearing in background sounds are also more likely to develop dementia, as found in a study from the UK.

A research involving over 80,000 elderly individuals in the UK has discovered a significant link between difficulties in understanding speech in noisy environments and the development of dementia.

For this research, 82,039 participants without dementia, all aged 60 years or older, were chosen from the UK Biobank. The UK Biobank is a large-scale, ongoing study that includes around 500,000 women and men between the ages of 40 to 69, who were recruited between 2006 and 2010.

By the conclusion of the study, 67,645 participants (82.5%) had normal hearing in speech in noise, 11,329 (13.8%) had hearing that was insufficient for speech in noise, and 3,065 (3.7%) had hearing that was poor for speech in noise.

Over a period of 11 years, 1,285 participants were diagnosed with dementia.

Participants with insufficient and poor speech in noise hearing were found to have a 61% and 91% higher risk of developing dementia, respectively, compared to those with normal speech in noise hearing.

This link between speech in noise hearing and dementia was consistent across different follow-up periods, ranging from less than 3 years to more than 9 years.

Self-reported hearing loss

The percentage of people reporting hearing difficulties rose as their speech-in-noise hearing deteriorated. Nonetheless, 53.4% and 43.8% of individuals with inadequate and subpar speech-in-noise hearing, respectively, did not report any hearing issues.

Data in the study

The research evaluated speech-in-noise hearing levels across a period from 2009/2010 to 2012/2013, employing a Digit Triplets Test to classify individuals as having normal, insufficient, or poor hearing. Dementia status was determined by reviewing hospital records for inpatients from the Hospital Episode Statistics for England and Wales, as well as the Patient Episode Database for Wales, along with data from the NHS Digital death register.

The article titled “Speech-in-noise hearing impairment is linked to a higher likelihood of developing dementia in 82,039 participants from the UK Biobank,” was released in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.