Dark-eared Elderly People Are More Likely to Have Dementia...Deafness Over 55 Doubles Risk of Occurrence After 10 Years
Jan 24, 2025
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Sunwoo Woong-sang, a professor of otolaryngology at Gachon University Gil Hospital, explained that various studies have recently proven a direct link between hearing loss and dementia in the elderly.
According to examples of overseas studies published in the global journal 'Lancet', the risk of developing dementia nearly doubled after about 10 years if people aged 55 or older had hearing loss. Each time the hearing threshold (sound intensity value) increased by about 10 dB, the risk of developing dementia increased by about 30%.
As such, it is not known exactly why hearing loss causes cognitive decline in the brain. It is estimated that mechanisms such as aging and microvascular lesions associated with hearing loss affect the occurrence of dementia. If brain stimulation due to hearing loss is reduced, sensory deprivation can lead to decreased activity in the sensory processing area of the brain, resulting in cognitive decline.
In addition, it is estimated that communication difficulties arise due to hearing loss, and social isolation is induced, resulting in decreased social interaction, resulting in poor cognitive function. In addition, when hearing loss occurs, the remaining hearing is utilized to the fullest, and more energy is consumed in the processing of hearing, reducing the resources to be used for other cognitive functions. Cognitive function decreases due to increased cognitive load due to hearing loss.
Hearing loss can be health threatening even with small changes because hearing has many effects on our daily lives. Humans have sensitive hearing functions that detect even the smallest difference in sound.
According to a 2020 study by the JAMA Journal of Otolaryngology, one of the world's most trusted medical journals published by the American Medical Association, cognitive decline was significant for each hearing difference of 10 dB in those over 50. This showed significant results even in the normal hearing range of hearing sounds smaller than 25 dB. About 20 dB is a small recognizable sound in a very quiet environment, such as the sound of leaves or clock seconds. Usually, hearing loss is defined when no sound less than 25 dB is heard. In other words, those who could hear sounds smaller than 15 dB even with normal hearing that was not deaf had higher cognitive function scores than those who did not.
The worst habit that causes hearing loss is excessive noise exposure. Usually, loud sounds above 80 dB cause hearing problems. The size of the daily conversation is about 50 dB, and it can be seen that every 10 dB increase in sound increases ten times. In other words, 80 dB sound may be said to be 1000 times louder than a normal conversation sound.
Many people are increasingly wearing earphones or headphones in their daily lives. At this time, it is recommended to use the volume with the maximum output set to 80 dB or less, and to use a product with noise blocking or noise removal function if there is noise around. However, it should be noted that using the noise removal function outdoors or while walking may cause an accident without being aware of the surrounding situation.
To date, there is no way to restore once damaged hearing itself. Wearing hearing aids is the best way to rehabilitate hearing. Two out of 10 elderly people suffer from moderate hearing loss that requires hearing aids, and one out of two people are in their 80s and older. However, it was found that only about 10% of them use hearing aids. This suggests that more hearing aids should be used due to the low performance of hearing aids and frequent battery replacements in the past.
If hearing aids are used to treat hearing loss, it is helpful for hearing rehabilitation and has a protective effect that delays cognitive decline. It has been confirmed that the use of hearing aids reduces the rate of cognitive decline by about 50% in elderly patients over 70 years of age who are at high risk of developing dementia. Therefore, if the elderly have hearing loss, it is expected that both cognitive decline and dementia can be slowed down through hearing aids.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
