To the Editor:Once considered a benign aspect of aging, recent evidence suggests hearing loss is
the largest modifiable risk factor for incident dementia.
1
As many as 6 in 10 older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease–related
dementias (AD/ADRD) have hearing loss,
2
an underdiagnosed, progressive condition that limits communication and engagement
with surroundings. There is no cure to return “normal” hearing. Instead, intervention
involves providing amplification devices (eg, hearing aids) that manipulate and boost
certain sounds in tandem with environmental modifications and communication strategies
to help the brain “fill in” missed auditory information. Because the auditory system
remains damaged, a large focus of best-practice auditory rehabilitation is guiding
patients in acclimating to using augmented sounds to hear what they have been missing.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission.Lancet. 2020; 6736: 413-446
- Dementia and hearing loss: interrelationships and treatment considerations.Semin Speech Lang. 2018; 39: 197-210
- Hearing loss treatment in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or dementia: a systematic review.J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2018; 61: 2589-2603
- Effects of age on auditory and cognitive processing: implications for hearing aid fitting and audiologic rehabilitation.Trends Amplif. 2006; 10: 29-59
- National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2021https://doi.org/10.17226/26026
- A broad examination of health policy barriers to access and affordability of hearing treatment for medicare beneficiaries.Semin Hear. 2022; 43: 13-19
- Screening for hearing loss in older adults: updated evidence report and systematic review for the US Preventive Services Task Force.JAMA. 2021; 325: 1202-1215
Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, S 670 (2017-2018), 115th Congress.
- The Medicare annual wellness visit.Clin Geriatr Med. 2018; 34: 1-10
- The effect of direct cognitive assessment in the Medicare annual wellness visit on dementia diagnosis rates.Health Serv Res. 2021; 56: 193-203
Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 05, 2022
Accepted:
October 3,
2022
Received:
September 28,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
