Hearing loss is prevalent in almost two-thirds of adults older than 70 years and remains undertreated. Dr. Frank R. Lin, an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins, is engaged in study of the effects of hearing loss on cognitive decline. He has hypothesized that hearing loss is independently associated with accelerated cognitive decline and incident cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults.
He proposes that there could be some common neurologic or physiologic pathway underlying both hearing loss and cognition. Hearing loss has emerged as the most common sensory deficit in adults. Hearing loss adversely affects the ability to communicate and hence interferes with exchange of information, which result in loneliness, isolation, dependence on others, which may result in frustration. The resultant reduction in quality of life is…
