Monitoring Desk
CALIFORNIA: Middle-aged people with hearing loss who regularly used a hearing aid can potentially extend their life.
Middle-aged Americans who experience hearing loss can extend their life expectancy by using a hearing aid, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that the device lowered all-cause mortality by 24% in a studied group.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey estimates that 40 million adults have some kind of hearing loss, with rates increasing with age.
However, a 2019 CDC study finds that a large portion of these people are not using hearing aids.
“These results are exciting because they suggest that hearing aids may play a protective role in people’s health and prevent early death,” Janet Choi, M.D., MPH, lead researcher of the study and otolaryngologist at USC, said in a statement.
For the study, published Wednesday in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, researchers gathered data from 10,000 adults who received an audio screening between 1999 and 2012.
Among the group, 1,863 were determined to have hearing loss. The average age of people in this group was 48.
Of the people with a hearing deficiency, researchers determined that 237 regularly used a hearing aid, and around 1,400 had never used the device.
When controlling for other factors, such as income, education and medical history, researchers found that people who never used the device were more likely to die of any cause in any given year.
However, they found little difference between mortality in people who only used them on occasion and those who never used them.
“Regular hearing aid use was associated with lower risks of mortality than in never users in U.S. adults with hearing loss when accounting for age, hearing loss, and other potential confounders,” researchers concluded.
However, they also noted that more research is necessary to determine how the devices can help extend lifespan.
Dr. Choi believes that the devices can improve the mental health and brain function of people who are dealing with hearing loss, and in turn improve their overall health and extend their lives.
