Takeaway
- Hearing aid (HA) use is independently associated with a lower risk of incident dementia in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
- Slower cognitive decline is seen in users than non-users of HA with MCI.
Why this matters
- The causality between hearing aid use and incident dementia should be further tested in a randomized clinical trial.
Study details
- A longitudinal retrospective study of 2114 patients (age >50 years) with hearing impairment using data obtained from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center.
- All patients were classified into two groups according to the disease stage:
- Group 1: diagnosed with MCI at baseline (n=939).
- Group 2: diagnosed with dementia at baseline (n=1175).
- Disease progression was assessed with Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) scores.
- Funding: National Institute on Aging; National Institutes of Health.
Key results
- The risk of developing dementia in MCI participants was significantly lower with the use of HA vs non-use (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61-0.89; false discovery rate [FDR] P=.004).
- The mean annual rate of change (standard deviation) in CDR-SB scores for non-HA users with MCI was 1.7 (1.95) points per year and significantly higher than for HA users of 1.3 (1.45) CDR-SB points per year (P=.02).
- No statistically significant association was seen between the use of HA and mortality risk in patients with dementia (HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.78-1.24; FDR P=.89).
- Higher CDR-SB scores were associated with the increased risk of mortality (HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.05-1.11; FDR P<.001).
Limitations
- Risk of bias.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.