Hearing Loss as a Modifiable Risk Factor for Dementia

This study evaluated hearing loss (HL) as a potential early indicator of dementia. We analyzed 16,270 participants from the All of Us database (1980 to 2022), including 1,224 (7.5%) with dementia, matched to controls by U.S. census demographics. Severe survey-reported HL showed the strongest association with dementia (odds ratio [OR] 6.76), followed by sensorineural HL (SNHL) (OR 3.90), smoking (OR 1.71), parental HL (OR 1.48), and hypertension (OR 1.48), all p < 0.001. Effect sizes were largest for severe survey-reported HL (1.91) and SNHL (1.36). These findings indicate that severe survey-reported HL and SNHL are strongly associated with dementia.