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Loneliness as a Pathway Linking Hearing Decline to Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal and Genetic Evidence
Yang S, Grilli MD, Wootton RE, van de Weijer MP, Treur JL, Klimentidis YC, Sbarra DA.. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2026-04-18
Topic: Genetics and APOE
Age-related hearing loss is linked to loneliness and poorer cognitive health, but it remains unclear whether loneliness helps explain associations between hearing difficulties and cognitive performance or dementia, and whether these patterns reflect causal pathways or shared underlying liability. In this preregistered study, we triangulated analyses across multiple data sources spanning approximately 18 years of observational data with 8 sources of molecular genetic information to examine whether loneliness helps explain the association between hearing difficulty and cognitive performance, Alzheimer’s disease dementia, and all-cause dementia, and whether hearing-aid use may buffer this association. In longitudinal parallel-process latent growth curve models ( N = 10,375) using nine waves of longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), poorer hearing was associated with greater loneliness, and greater loneliness was associated with poorer cognitive performance, consistent with partial mediation. In contrast, worsening hearing over time was not clearly associated with increasing loneliness over time. Cumulative hearing-aid use did not appear to alter long-term loneliness trajectories, although current hearing-aid use weakened the concurrent association between poorer hearing and greater loneliness. In genetic analyses, we found little evidence that hearing phenotypes or loneliness had clear total or indirect effects on Alzheimer’s disease dementia or all-cause dementia. Analyses accounting for shared genetic liability with neuroticism provided some evidence linking loneliness with poorer cognitive performance, and colocalization analyses further suggested shared genetic architecture across hearing, loneliness, cognition, and neuroticism-related traits. Overall, the findings support a robust cross-domain association between poorer hearing, greater loneliness, and poorer cognitive performance, while suggesting that long-term change and genetic evidence are more consistent with shared liability than with a single causal pathway.
Key findings
- In longitudinal parallel-process latent growth curve models ( N = 10,375) using nine waves of longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), poorer hearing was associated with greater loneliness, and greater loneliness was associated with poorer cognitive performance, consistent with partial mediation.
- In contrast, worsening hearing over time was not clearly associated with increasing loneliness over time.
- In genetic analyses, we found little evidence that hearing phenotypes or loneliness had clear total or indirect effects on Alzheimer’s disease dementia or all-cause dementia.
- Overall, the findings support a robust cross-domain association between poorer hearing, greater loneliness, and poorer cognitive performance, while suggesting that long-term change and genetic evidence are more consistent with shared liability than with a single causal pathway.
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Study details
- Study designlongitudinal study
- Participants10,375
- Evidence strengthModerate
How this study scored 72/100
Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a longitudinal study following the same people over time. Scored zero for effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 42 of the 58 points we could judge it on, which is 72 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 7 / 12 | A longitudinal study following the same people over time |
| Strength of evidence | 3 / 5 | Rated “moderate” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 4 / 4 | 10,375 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 42 / 58 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 42 of the 58 points we could judge it on is 72 out of 100. |
| Total | 72 / 100 | — |
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record names 7 authors; APA and Vancouver show the first six, BibTeX and the downloads carry all of them. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Yang, S., Grilli, M. D., Wootton, R. E., van de Weijer, M. P., Treur, J. L., Klimentidis, Y. C., et al. (2026). Loneliness as a Pathway Linking Hearing Decline to Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal and Genetic Evidence. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.16.26351059
Vancouver
Yang S, Grilli MD, Wootton RE, van de Weijer MP, Treur JL, Klimentidis YC, et al. Loneliness as a Pathway Linking Hearing Decline to Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal and Genetic Evidence. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.04.16.26351059.
BibTeX
@article{yang2026-f71c1569,
author = {Yang, S. and Grilli, M. D. and Wootton, R. E. and van de Weijer, M. P. and Treur, J. L. and Klimentidis, Y. C. and Sbarra, D. A.},
title = {{Loneliness as a Pathway Linking Hearing Decline to Cognitive Aging: Longitudinal and Genetic Evidence}},
journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.64898/2026.04.16.26351059},
url = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.16.26351059}
}