The surprising link between hearing loss and dementia.
Worldwide, around 50 million people have dementia
Half of people don’t know the risk factors for dementia
Individuals with moderate hearing loss have triple the dementia risk
If all hearing loss was treated, nearly 1 in 10 cases of dementia could be eliminated
Did you know that there were different ways to reduce the risk of dementia?
Released on 30th July 2020, a report by The Lancet Commission suggested that modifying 12 risk factors from childhood to later life could delay or prevent around 40% of dementia cases. These lifestyle factors that can be adjusted in order to reduce one’s risk for developing dementia.
The 12 modifiable risk factors are:
- less education in early life
- hearing loss
- traumatic brain injury
- hypertension
- alcohol
- obesity
- smoking
- depression
- social isolation
- physical inactivity
- air pollution
- diabetes
An untreated hearing loss in midlife remains the largest modifiable risk factor of dementia. Additionally, dementia risk varies based on level of hearing loss.
Mild hearing loss doubles the dementia risk, moderate hearing loss triples the risk and severe hearing impairment increased the risk up to 5 times that of this who do not have an hearing impairment.
Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext
Do you think you may have a hearing loss? Contact us today for a FREE hearing health check and one of our specialist audiologists will be happy to help.