Medscape (7/18, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports, “Patients with risk factors for dementia, such as diabetes and hypertension, experienced a 48% slowing of cognitive decline after wearing a hearing aid for three years,” investigators concluded in findings from the 977-participant ACHIEVE study presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference and simultaneously published online in The Lancet.
HealthDay (7/18, Murez) reports, “Untreated hearing loss may contribute to cognitive decline in several ways, including by making the brain work harder to hear, at the detriment of other mental functions such as thinking and memory,” and “may cause the aging brain to shrink more quickly, the study suggested.” Additionally, “hearing loss may also ultimately result in brain atrophy as people become less socially engaged.”
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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)