Speech‐in‐noise hearing impairment is associated with an increased risk of incident dementia in 82,039 UK Biobank participants

Journal article

Introduction Little is known about the association between speech-in-noise (SiN) hearing impairment and dementia.
Methods In 82,039 dementia-free participants aged ≥60 years were selected from the UK Biobank. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to investigate whether SiN hearing impairment is associated with an increased risk of incident dementia.
Results Over 11 years of follow-up (median = 10.1), 1285 participants developed dementia. Insufficient and poor SiN hearing were associated with a 61% (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.61, 95% confidence [CI] 1.41–1.84) and 91% (HR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.55–2.36) increased risk of developing dementia, respectively, compared to normal SiN hearing. The association remained similar when restricting to follow-up intervals of ≤3, >3 to <6, >6 to <9, and >9 years. There was limited evidence for mediation through depressive symptoms and social isolation.
Discussion SiN hearing impairment is independently associated with incident dementia, providing further evidence for hearing impairment as a potential modifiable dementia risk factor.

Authors: Stevenson, JS; Clifton, L; Kuźma, E; Littlejohns, TJ

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Alzheimer's Association
• Journal: Alzheimer's and Dementia More from this journal
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 445-456
• Publication date: 2021-07-21
• Acceptance date: 2021-06-01
• DOI: 10.1002/alz.12416
• EISSN: 1552-5279
• ISSN: 1552-5260
• Language: English
• Keywords: speech-in-noise; hearing impairment; longitudinal; depression; dementia; FFR; social isolation; hearing aid; UK Biobank