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Hearing aids can help reduce mortality by 25 percent
The study found there was nearly a 25 percent difference in mortality risk between regular hearing aid users and those who never used it.
Representative Image of a Hearing Aid / UnSplash
Using hearing aids can help people with hearing loss live longer, a new study by Keck Medicine of University of Southern California found. While hearing loss affects about 40 million American adults, only one in 10 people use them, the research confirms.
Around 9,885 adults, aged 20 and above, participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that took place between 1999 and 2012. They completed questionnaires related to audiometry and hearing aid use as part of the study.
The study found there was nearly a 25 percent difference in mortality risk between regular hearing aid users and those who never used it. Notably, factors like degree of hearing loss, age, ethnicity, income, education, did not impact the findings.
“We found that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24% lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them,” said Janet Choi, an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine and lead researcher of the study.
“These results are exciting because they suggest that hearing aids may play a protective role in people’s health and prevent early death. The study represents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the relationship between hearing loss, hearing aid use and mortality in the US.”
Choi and other researchers found that one of the reasons that a downward trend was observed among hearing aid users is that the devices can help to prevent or slow the progression of dementia. However, one of the researchers pointed out that readers of the study must not believe that hearing loss might lead to early death.
“I am concerned that people reading this study will be concerned that they are going to die earlier because of hearing loss,” added Dr. Darius Kohan, chief of otology and neurotology at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “This isn’t true. People do not die from hearing loss. They may die because of contributing circumstances, such as depression or loneliness.”
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