Hearing aids could boost longevity

UF Health Podcasts

If you have hearing aids but don’t use them, you might be unknowingly shortening your life.

Hearing aids and lifespan may seem incongruous, but consider these recent findings by University of Southern California researchers: People with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24% lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them.

While previous research found an association between untreated hearing loss and shorter lives, the latest findings are among the first to shed light on whether hearing aids can reduce the risk of death.

To establish that, the researchers used data from more than 10,000 adults who had been given a common test to gauge hearing ability and answered questionnaires about hearing aid use. Nearly 2,000 of those people were noted to have hearing loss.

The researchers found an almost 25% difference in mortality risk during the study between regular hearing aid users and those who never used them. That difference remained constant after controlling for factors, including the severity of hearing loss, age, income and ethnicity.

The risk of death was about equal between occasional users of hearing aids and those who never used them. That, the researchers noted, suggests there’s no life-extending benefit to occasional hearing aid use.

The study drew no conclusions about why hearing aids might help people live longer. However, the researchers noted other recent findings have associated hearing aid use with lower levels of dementia and depression. They hope the findings will encourage more people to use hearing aids.

When it comes to hearing aids, the message is simple: If you have them, use them.