Dementia Action Week: 19th-25th May. Hearing Loss & Dementia
The Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Action week takes place from 19th - 25th May 2025. This years focus is The importance of early diagnosis for people affected by dementia.
We felt this was a good moment to rediscus to one of the three talks Tracy James and Louise Hart gave on World Hearing Day (3rd March 2025). The talk was by Louise Hart where she discusses hearing loss and dementia.
Hearing Loss & Dementia
A 5 minute video snippet can be found on our Facebook page.
I have also transcribed the 5 minute snippet for you below…
“There was a GP (who had retired in Devon) He had very big interest in hearing loss and dementia and what he did was he called in 10 of his dementia patients who had had their dementia assessment within his old GP practice. What he found was that in 1 or 2 cases , once he got hearing aids on them, they actually didn’t have dementia, they just had a hearing loss. But because they couldn’t hear the questions that he was asking correctly, they responded incorrectly. In other cases it actually made the dementia appear worse. So when he put hearing aids on them, the result of their dementia assessment wasn’t as bad. So it just shows you what a difference addressing a hearing loss with hearing aids makes to somebody that has dementia.
So we talked about what people do automatically if they cant hear, particularly if they find it really effects their ability to be social and be with other people. They stop going out because ‘I cant hear whats going on, there’s no point, everybody laughs, im just sitting there looking like an idiot, so im not going to go out’
Also, there is lots of research to say that if you have a hearing loss it takes much more mental effort to listen, and you get tired by the end of the day. We see this with children with hearing loss, they are often very tired and grouchy by the end of the school day, even with hearing aids in, because the brain has to put that extra effort in.
So, what happens, because the hearing loss hasn’t been addressed, they become more socially isolated, they become more tired. The meaningful conversations that you need to keep you brain active, they stop happening.
The other thing that happens, with hearing loss, is that our brain has to use the part of our brain that is there to deal with long term auditory memory. It starts using that instead of short term auditory memory, and whats really important about that is that long term auditory memory is what we use to have meaningful, complex conversations. If were not wearing hearing aids and not addressing that hearing loss, then we are using part of our brain that is actually meant to be there for more complex information. So we end up using part of our brain to hear that’s actually meant to be used for something else
Hearing aids make it easier for the brain to listen, they help reduce listening fatigue and increase social interaction and that’s crucial. Keeping the brain active before or during dementia.
Hearing loss effects the way the brain processes sound, and dementia is a brain processing disorder, so they use the same pathways of memory and understanding, that’s really important.
What we’ve noticed as audiologists, is if hearing loss isn’t addressed, then people with dementia struggle to hear and this may cause the dementia to progress faster. Because what is happening is you are not having those meaningful conversations, you’re not listening, you’re not enjoying the music. You then start to stay in your room you don’t do things, all of those things that allow tour brain to keep active, they stop happening.
Hearing aids help to ensure the sufferer continues to converse with those around them and that’s important for their brain health”
- Louise Hart PG Dip RCCP RHAD
Below is an article written by Louise Hart which discusses this topic further…
If you have any further questions on this subject and/or would like to book a hearing test with Tracy James Hearing you can do so via the button below.
