Listen Up! The Connections Between Hearing Loss, Hearing Interventions and Cognitive Decline

Dementia Matters

Hearing loss affects roughly 15.5% of Americans 20 years and older. While the majority of these individuals experience mild hearing loss, the prevalence and severity of hearing loss increases with age. What does this sensory change mean for dementia risk, and can this risk be prevented through interventions like hearing aids? Dr. Frank Lin joins the podcast to discuss the relationship between hearing loss and dementia and share findings from the Aging and Cognitive Health Evaluation in Elders, or ACHIEVE, study.

Guest: Frank Lin, MD, PhD, director, Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Professor of Otolaryngology, Medicine, Mental Health, and Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University

Show Notes

Read more about Dr. Lin’s study, “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,” in The Lancet.

Learn more about the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, mentioned at 20:01, through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s websites.

Read more about U.S. regulations surrounding over-the-counter hearing aids, mentioned at 34:00, in “‘A New Frontier’ for Hearing Aids,” by The New York Times.

Learn more about Dr. Lin at his bio on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website.

Learn more about the ACHIEVE study on their webpage.

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