Older adults with hearing impairment may have a higher risk of dying than people with normal hearing, a study suggests.
The reasons for the connection are not clear, researchers say, but the results point to hearing impairment at least as a sign of, and possibly a contributor to, an older person’s survival odds.
“In the simplest terms, the worse the patient’s hearing loss, the greater the risk of death,” lead author Kevin Contrera said of the study’s findings.
Past research has linked hearing problems to a variety of negative health effects, but few studies have looked directly at mortality risk, Contrera and his colleagues write in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.
Two-thirds of adults over 70 experience hearing impairment, said Contrera, a medical student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, the US.
He and his colleagues looked at data on 1,666 adults from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2005-2006 and 2009-2010, as well as death records through the end of 2011.
The people included in the analysis were all over age 70 and had undergone hearing testing. Using World Health Organisation criteria to define hearing impairment, and accounting for individuals’ age, the researchers found that people with moderate or severe hearing impairment had a 54 per cent greater risk of dying than those with normal hearing. Mild hearing impairment was linked to a 27 per cent increased risk.
The researchers then also adjusted for more variables that could influence hearing and death risk, including sex, race and education, as well as heart risk factors, like stroke, smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Even after accounting for those factors, the study team found that people with moderately or severely impaired hearing had a 39 per cent higher risk of death than those without hearing problems, and those with mild hearing impairment had a 21 per cent greater risk.
The study observed the link between hearing problems and death, but more research is needed to know if hearing loss is somehow a contributing cause, Contrera cautioned: eg: the researchers did not investigate whether treating hearing impairment reduces the risk of death, which would help to clarify the relationship.
Although the study focused on seniors, the findings may have value for people of all ages.