Treatable middle-ear conditions may be linked to increased dementia risk
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Common and treatable ear conditions may be associated with a higher risk of dementia, new research suggests.
A study conducted at Columbia University investigated how middle ear problems that can cause conductive hearing loss are linked to brain impairment.
The study, published in the Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, analyzed a large data set from the National Institutes of Health, including more than 300,000 U.S. adults.
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According to a press release, the study focused on three hearing loss conditions: cholesteatoma (abnormal skin growth in the middle ear), eardrum perforation (hole in the eardrum), and otosclerosis (abnormal bone changes in the middle ear).
Treatable ear conditions that can cause hearing loss may also be associated with dementia risk. (iStock)
After comparing dementia diagnoses in people with these conditions, researchers found that cholesteatoma was linked to 1.77 times the odds of cognitive impairment, and eardrum perforation was linked to more than twice the risk.
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Otosclerosis was not significantly associated with dementia.
According to the study, the risk of dementia associated with cholesteatoma and perforated eardrum was slightly reduced when surgical treatment was performed.
Researchers say these findings suggest that correctable conditions may reduce the risk of dementia. (iStock)
These findings add to existing evidence that “cognition is affected by sensory deprivation,” the authors wrote, but also suggest that some causes are treatable, which may reduce the risk of dementia.
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The study’s design was observational, meaning it shows an association between ear conditions and dementia but cannot prove one causes the other.
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel noted that dementia is not the cause of hearing loss, but that there appears to be a “strong relationship in the opposite direction.”
“When you don’t have the ability to hear, you become more isolated from the world and, as a result, more likely to develop dementia,” says one doctor. (iStock)
These findings dovetail with previous evidence that found that the more socially “engaged in the world” a person is, the less likely they are to develop dementia, Siegel said.
“It’s almost like the brain is a social muscle that needs to be exercised,” the doctor, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. “When you don’t have the ability to hear, you become more isolated from the world and, as a result, more likely to develop dementia.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the study’s authors for comment.
