Hearing intervention – a powerful tool to foster social-emotional and cognitive health

Addressing hearing loss through hearing intervention, including hearing aids or cochlear implants and accessories, can significantly improve communication abilities and thereby reduce the risk of social isolation¹ as well as the risk for accelerated cognitive decline²³. The recent study findings on the connection between hearing loss, social isolation, and cognition along with the benefits of wearing hearing aids can help foster social integration and slow down loss of thinking and memory abilities.²³⁴⁵

References:  

(1) Fratiglioni, L., Wang, H. X., Ericsson, K., Maytan, M., & Winblad, B. (2000). Influence of social network on occurrence of dementia: a community-based longitudinal study. Lancet (London, England), 355(9212), 1315–1319. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(00)02113-9 

(2) Lin, F. R., Pike, J. R., Albert, M. S., Arnold, M., Burgard, S., Chisolm, T., Couper, D., Deal, J. A., Goman, A. M., Glynn, N. W., Gmelin, T., Gravens-Mueller, L., Hayden, K. M., Huang, A. R., Knopman, D., Mitchell, C. M., Mosley, T., Pankow, J. S., Reed, N. S., Sanchez, V., … ACHIEVE Collaborative Research Group (2023). Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial. Lancet (London, England), 402(10404), 786–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01406-X 

(3) Sarant, J. Z., Busby, P. A., Schembri, A. J., Harris, D. C., Fowler, C. (2023). ENHANCE: A Comparative prospective longitudinal study of cognitive outcomes after 3 years of hearing aid use in older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 15. DOI 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1302185. 

(4) Timmer, B. H. B., Bennett, R. J., Montano, J., Hickson, L., Weinstein, B., Wild, J., … Dyre, L. (2023). Social-emotional well-being and adult hearing loss: clinical recommendations. International Journal of Audiology, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2023.2190864 

(5) Vercammen, C., Ferguson, M., Kramer, S.E., Meis, M., Singh, G., Timmer, B., Gagné, J.-P., Goy., H., Hickson, L., Holube, I., Launer, S., Lemke, U., Naylor, G., Picou, E., Scherpiet, S., Weinstein, B., & Pelosi, A. (2020). Well-Hearing is Well-Being: A Phonak Position Statement. Hearing Review, 27, 18-22.