- 293studies in the library match, of 29,380
- 145name it in the title
- 1980–2026years published
- 274peer-reviewed articles
The query: title or abstract mentions "hearing loss", "hearing aid(s)", "hearing impairment", "hearing intervention", "presbycusis" or "audiometry", matched case-insensitively against each record's title and abstract (its summary field) in alzhub's library of 29,380 study records, as of 2026-11-08. Every count on this page comes from that match. The matched list as JSON.
Cohort studies that follow people for years find higher rates of dementia among those with untreated hearing loss. Proposed explanations include the extra effort of listening, social withdrawal, and shared causes affecting both the ear and the brain. Whether treating hearing loss lowers the risk is a separate question that randomised trials of hearing aids have begun to test.
This page describes what published research in alzhub's library reports. It is not medical advice and does not apply to any one person: a doctor who knows the person's history is the only one who can say what a result or a treatment means for them.
What the studies report, in their own words
Whole sentences copied from the abstract or key findings of the highest-scoring matched studies, chosen because they mention the subject and give a figure. 8 of the 293 matched records are quoted; each links to its study page and from there to the paper.
“It was shown that hearing loss was independently associated with dementia [adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.59, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.37 to 1.86, p < 0.001; I 2 = 86%].”
“Random-effects models were fitted to estimate the summary risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence interval (CIs), which represents the pooled association between hearing impairment with risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia, compared to subjects free of hearing impairment.”
“However, a prespecified sensitivity analysis showed a significant difference in the effect of the hearing intervention on 3-year cognitive change between the ARIC and de novo cohorts (p interaction =0·010).”
“Here, we performed a genome-wide association meta-analysis of clinically diagnosed and self-reported hearing impairment on 723,266 individuals and identified 48 significant loci, 10 of which are novel.”
“Additionally, meta-analysis of 11 studies with 568 participants studying the association between hearing restoration and short-term cognitive test score changes revealed a 3% improvement in short-term cognitive test scores after the use of hearing aids (ratio of means, 1.03; 95% CI, 1.02-1.04, I2 = 0%).”
“Furthermore, the risk of dementia among individuals with vision impairment, hearing impairment, and oral health issues further escalated to an even higher level (HR 1.63, 95% CI [1.19-2.24]).”
“Overall, 5.4% (95% CI, 4.7%-6.1%) of participants reported functional vision impairment only, 18.9% (95% CI, 18.9%-17.8%) reported functional hearing impairment only, and 3.1% (95% CI, 2.7%-3.5%) reported functional dual sensory impairment (prevalence estimates are weighted).”
“The overall combined relative risk of people with hearing impairment to develop Alzheimer's disease was 4.87 (95% CI 0.90-26.35; p = 0.066), compared with the control group.”
What kind of evidence it is
By study design
| Design (as recorded) | Studies |
|---|---|
| Systematic review or meta-analysis | 22 |
| Randomised controlled trial | 10 |
| Cohort or longitudinal study | 67 |
| Case-control study | 3 |
| Cross-sectional study | 26 |
| Other recorded design | 4 |
| No design recorded | 161 |
The design is the one named in alzhub's record for the study; a record with none is counted as "no design recorded".
By year
| Year | Studies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 28 | |
| 2025 | 46 | |
| 2024 | 19 | |
| 2023 | 14 | |
| 2022 | 20 | |
| 2021 | 23 | |
| 2020 | 15 | |
| 2019 | 27 | |
| 2018 | 20 | |
| 2017 | 14 | |
| 2016 and earlier | 67 |
Other counts within the matched set
| Peer-reviewed articles | 274 |
| Marked open access in the record | 93 |
| Rated "high" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 43 |
| Rated "moderate" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 96 |
| Rated "low" evidence strength in alzhub's summary | 154 |
| Records stating a participant count | 126 |
| Median participants (those records) | 1,882 |
| Largest participant count | 1,686,759 |
Within the 293 matched studies
| Studies… | Count | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| …that mention hearing aids or a hearing intervention | 60 | the abstract also contains "hearing aid" or "hearing intervention" |
| …that are randomised trials | 25 | the abstract also contains "randomised" or "randomized" |
| …that report a hazard ratio | 39 | the abstract also contains "hazard ratio" or "HR" |
The 10 highest-scoring matched studies
Title matches first, then by alzhub's usefulness score, which rates a study's design, journal, evidence and recency, not whether its result is good news.
- Adult-onset hearing loss and incident cognitive impairment and dementia - A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies
- Hearing Loss and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies
- Hearing Impairment, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies
- 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
- Genome-wide association meta-analysis identifies 48 risk variants and highlights the role of the stria vascularis in hearing loss
- Association of Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants With Cognitive Decline and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
- Prevalence of Concurrent Functional Vision and Hearing Impairment and Association With Dementia in Community-Dwelling Medicare Beneficiaries
- Hearing impairment and risk of Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies
- Association of Hearing Loss With Dementia
- 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
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the set
22 of the matched records are recorded as a systematic review, meta-analysis or umbrella review; the highest-scoring not already listed above:
- Hearing Screening for Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review
- Population attributable fractions for risk factors for dementia in low-income and middle-income countries: an analysis using cross-sectional survey data
- Hearing loss and the risk of dementia in later life
- Association of Age-Related Hearing Loss With Cognitive Function, Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
- Modifiable risk factors for stroke, dementia and late-life depression: a systematic review and DALY-weighted risk factors for a composite outcome
Newest matched studies
- Cognition in healthy aging, ages 36 to 108: Associations with dementia risk factors and neurodegenerative disease biomarkers
- Retinal biomarkers and dementia risk: A review of evidence across the 14 Lancet modifiable risk factors for dementia
- Interacting Role of Social Determinants of Health and Hearing Loss on Cognitive Decline: An ACTIVE Longitudinal Study
- Public awareness of the hearing loss-dementia link and self-reported behavioral changes in middle- to older-aged Canadians
- Patterns of modifiable lifestyle, behavioural and health-related risk factors and their associations with incident dementia in UK Biobank
Journals with the most matched studies
| Journal | Studies |
|---|---|
| Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 16 |
| Alzheimer s & Dementia | 9 |
| The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences | 7 |
| Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD | 6 |
| Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association | 5 |
Questions
- Does hearing loss cause dementia?
- Cohort studies find an association: people with untreated hearing loss develop dementia more often. Association is not proof of cause, and the trials of hearing aids listed below are the studies that test whether treating it changes the outcome.
- How many studies on hearing loss and dementia does alzhub hold?
- 293 of the 29,380 study records in alzhub's library match the query "title or abstract mentions "hearing loss", "hearing aid(s)", "hearing impairment", "hearing intervention", "presbycusis" or "audiometry""; 145 of them name it in the title. Counted from the records when this page was built.
- What kinds of study are they?
- 22 systematic review or meta-analysis, 10 randomised controlled trials, 67 cohort or longitudinal studys, 3 case-control studys, 26 cross-sectional studys; 161 record no design.
- What is the most recent study in the set?
- "Cognition in healthy aging, ages 36 to 108: Associations with dementia risk factors and neurodegenerative disease biomarkers" (medRxiv, 2026), the newest by publication date among the matched records.
- Which journals publish most on it?
- Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (16); Alzheimer s & Dementia (9); The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences (7), counted across the matched records.
Read on
- Risk factors, rankedEvery known risk factor ranked by evidence strength.
- PreventionLifestyle trials that worked, and the ones that did not.
- Life-course timelineWhen each risk factor acts and when it is still modifiable.