People who find it difficult to hear a conversation in a noisy environment are twice as likely to go on to develop dementia later in life, the findings of a new study reveal.
Health data from more than 82,000 participants over the age of 60 were studied by experts from the University of Oxford who were looking for dementia risk factors.
They found that difficulty hearing spoken conversations, particularly in a noisy environment, is associated with up to 91 per cent increased risk of dementia.
Hearing impairment affects around 1.5 billion people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, with increasing evidence it could be a dementia risk.
This prompted the Oxford team to delve into the UK Biobank dataset, where they found that struggling to follow conversations in a noisy environment was a risk factor of dementia that 'could be treated' and potentially hold off the condition.
Experts say anyone with concerns about their hearing should contact their GP.
The study authors said they didn't investigate the cause of the link, but speculate that hearing impairments increase the likelihood of other dementia risk factors, which turn increases the overall dementia risk.
People who find it difficult to hear a conversation in a noisy environment are twice as likely to go on to develop dementia later in life, the findings of a new study reveal
As people get older hearing becomes more difficult, and a major component of this is difficulty hearing speech in a loud environment.
This can have an impact on their day-to-day functioning, including struggling to hear announcements or becoming isolated due to difficulties in social situations.
The problem has also been shown to be a symptom of dementia among some people who struggle with the devastating condition.
However, until now it was unclear whether difficulty hearing speech-in-noise was associated with developing dementia, as well as being a symptom.
This has now been robustly investigated in a new study led by the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH).
At the beginning of the study, participants were asked to identify spoken numbers against a background of white noise.
Based on this test they were grouped by the researchers into normal, insufficient and poor speech-in-noise hearing.
Over 11 years of follow-up, 1,285 participants were identified as developing dementia based on hospital inpatient and death register records.
Insufficient and poor speech-in-noise hearing were associated with a 61 per cent and 91 per cent increased risk of
