Age-related hearing loss begins with the degeneration of hearing organs such as the eardrum and cochlea due to aging. Here, environmental factors such as noise from everyday life or work, and genetic factors act in a complex way.
However, we should not neglect hearing loss thinking that it is due to age. This is because hearing loss can decrease cognitive function and increase the risk of developing depression and dementia in old age.
One study found that hearing loss in old age increased the risk of dementia by up to five times. When it is difficult to communicate with other people due to hearing loss, it is not possible to receive appropriate sound stimuli, which leads to deterioration of brain function, which increases the risk of dementia.
There is no clear solution yet, but a recent study showing that elderly patients with hearing loss can reduce the risk of dementia to some extent by wearing a hearing aid to improve their hearing, drawing attention.
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According to the latest issue of ‘Ear and Hearing’, an international journal published by the American Academy of Hearing on the 25th, a joint research team from the Department of Otolaryngology and Throatology (Jeong Jae-ho, Byun Ha-young, Lee Seung-hwan) and Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Kim In-ah) at Hanyang University College of Medicine announced.
The research team divided the patients who were newly diagnosed with senile deafness (deafness) from 2004 to 2008 into the same number of non-wearing groups as the hearing aid wearers (8,780 people), and tracked the development of dementia until 2018.
As a result, in the hearing aid wearer group, dementia occurred at a rate of 156 per 10,000 people per year, but in the hearing aid non-wearing group, dementia occurred at a rate of 184.5 per 10,000 people.
The researchers estimated that elderly patients with hearing loss who wore hearing aids had a 25% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who did not wear hearing aids.
Professor Jeong Jae-ho of the Department of Otolaryngology and Throatology at Hanyang University Hospital said, “It has been estimated that hearing aids lower the risk of dementia, but this effect was confirmed in this study. there,” he said.
Elderly deaf patients diagnosed with deafness can purchase hearing aids by paying only 10% of the co-payment as health insurance insurance is paid.
However, experts advise that hearing aids are considered as easy as glasses and should not be worn unconditionally because they are effective in delaying dementia.
In the case of hearing loss, it is not simply that the sound is small, so just amplifying the loudness does not normalize the ability to hear. This is because hearing loss is accompanied by damage to the cochlea, which is the retina of the eye, and the auditory nerve. It is different from myopia or farsightedness, where normal vision can be restored by wearing glasses that adjust the focal length.
hearing aid▶ Click here for a larger view
For this reason, experts point out that the effects of hearing aids can be maximized only in the early stages of hearing loss with relatively little damage to the cochlea or auditory nerve. However, it is said that there are not a few cases in which the diagnosis of geriatric hearing loss is too late for the elderly in Korea, even if they wear a hearing aid.
Kim Seong-geun, director of the Department of Otolaryngology and Throatology, Kim Seong-geun, said, “The elderly in Korea rarely experience hearing loss in their daily life, so by the time they arrive at the hospital, the cochlear and auditory nerves are often damaged. can’t,” he pointed out.
Director Kim said, “If hearing loss can be improved with a hearing aid, it can be effective in preventing dementia by helping to improve cognitive function. It is recommended to wear a hearing aid after first receiving a diagnosis and prescription from a specialist.”
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