September 3, 2025
Good hearing is essential for good brain health, a growing body of evidence suggests. And the earlier you correct bad hearing, the better, according to a new report. The study found that over time, people in their 60s who used hearing aids to treat loss of hearing had a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia than their peers with untreated hearing loss.
Most of the previous studies of hearing loss and dementia focused on people age 70 and older, when hearing loss becomes more common and pronounced. For this study, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio evaluated 2,953 men and women ages 60 or older who were part of the Framingham Heart Study, a long-running study of cardiovascular and neurologic health and aging. The study group included a relatively large population of people ages 60 to 69 with hearing loss.
All the participants were free of dementia at the start of the study period. They all underwent pure-tone audiometry testing, a scientifically rigorous measure of hearing loss. Researchers followed them for up to 20 years to see if they developed Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.
They found that people in their 60s with hearing loss who reported using hearing aids had a 61 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other forms dementia compared to their peers with hearing loss who did not wear hearing aids. People in their 60s without hearing loss also had a lower risk of dementia over time compared with those with hearing loss who did not wear hearing aids. There was no association between hearing aid use and the later onset of dementia in people ages 70 and older.
The findings, published in JAMA Neurology, suggest that detecting and treating hearing loss early may be critical for preserving brain health. Hearing loss may place a cognitive load on the brain, scientists suspect. Straining to hear things in a noisy environment can take a lot of mental effort, pulling attention away from other mental tasks. Poor hearing can also make people feel isolated and less likely to seek out social contact. Social withdrawal can lead to isolation and increase feelings of loneliness and depression, all of which are well recognized risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.
A growing body of evidence suggests that good hearing is essential for helping to keep the brain in good working order as we age. In terms of modifiable risk factors for developing dementia, poor hearing has more of an impact than smoking, high blood pressure or lack of exercise.
A hearing exam may be especially important if you find yourself having trouble hearing others at parties or in noisy restaurants or other social settings. The good news is that quality over-the-counter hearing aids are fast becoming more affordable and available, and many are very small and unobtrusive. As ear buds and other on-the-ear devices become increasingly common among young people, wearing a hearing aid carries far less of the social stigma that it did in earlier generations.
Ask your doctor about what hearing aids might be right for you. A good hearing aid may help you to live for years longer, and to live those years with a brain that stays mentally sharp.
By ALZinfo.org, The Alzheimer’s Information Site. Reviewed by Eric Schmidt, Ph.D., Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation at The Rockefeller University.
Source: Lily Francis, MBBS, MPhil; Sudha Seshadri, MD; Lauren K. Dillard, PhD, AuD; et al: “Self-Reported Hearing Aid Use and Risk of Incident Dementia.” JAMA Neurology, August 18, 2025
