Hearing loss
dB HL (pure-tone average)
A measured drop in how well the ear picks up sound, usually a pure-tone average. Age is a nearby cause, not the same score.
A clinic scores how loud a tone has to be before you hear it. Hearing aids treat that score. Age, vascular disease, and noise sit nearby. The variable here is the audiogram, not the birthday.
Also called hearing impairment, audiometric hearing loss, presbycusis.
Connected relationships
MECHANISM? CONDITIONAL
Randomized trial · Contested
Hearing loss→Cognitive performance
Higher Hearing loss moves Cognitive performance only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
In 977 older adults with untreated hearing loss, three years of hearing aids did not slow a global cognition score versus health education; a prespecified ARIC slice of 238 people at higher risk did.
Sources
- FR Lin et al. (2023). 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.
- RC Yu et al. (2024). Adult-onset hearing loss and incident cognitive impairment and dementia - A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies.
- B Grenier et al. (2024). Hearing Loss, Hearing Aids, and Cognition.