Can a hearing aid protect against dementia

Dr Mark Porter on the link between hearing loss and dementia and whether a hearing aid can make a difference.

A man being fitted with a hearing aid
Image credit: Getty/Inside Creative House
By Dr Mark Porter
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A reader asks Dr Mark:

"Is it true that wearing a hearing aid can protect against dementia? My hearing has been going downhill over the past 20 years and I do have aids, but tend not to wear them unless I am going out to meet others.

"My wife gets fed up shouting at me when it’s just the two of us at home, but I would wear them more often if they were good for my brain."

Dr Mark replies

"There is a link between uncorrected hearing loss (no aids) and dementia, and the greater the loss the stronger the association. According to the RNID, if you have mild hearing loss in middle age or later life you are about twice as likely as your peers to develop dementia – five times more likely for the most severely affected.

The reason for this link is not completely clear, but hearing is an important part of brain function so it’s no surprise that it might reflect general brain health. And even if there is no direct association, struggling to hear without an aid puts an extra load on the brain as it has to divert more resources to working out what people are saying.

Last, but not least, having poor hearing means you are more likely to miss out on what’s going on around you and become socially isolated – another risk factor for dementia. And, yes, there is some evidence that wearing a hearing aid can slow the rate of cognitive decline in older people (by around 50% in one study).

Indeed hearing loss is now regarded as one of the most important modifiable risk factors for dementia, alongside more established ones such as smoking and high blood pressure.

This doesn’t mean wearing your aids more often will definitely offer some protection against dementia, but it can only help. And if you won’t wear them for your sake, do it for your wife’s."

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