Hearing aids helped some thinking scores but did not prove dementia prevention

Hearing loss has been linked to dementia, which raises an obvious question: if you treat the hearing, does the mind follow? The CHOICE trial, published September 28 in JAMA Neurology, put that to a test in China.

It enrolled 703 older adults, average age about 74.5, who had moderate-to-severe hearing loss and mild cognitive impairment, a stage of memory and thinking problems that falls short of dementia. Participants were randomly assigned either hearing aids or education about hearing health, then followed for two years.

Thinking scores improved in 15.34% of the hearing-aid group, compared with 2.36% of the education group.

The dementia question got a murkier answer. Over the two years, 3.09% of people with hearing aids progressed to dementia-level impairment, versus 4.74% in the education group. That gap was not statistically significant, so it could be chance. Better test scores and preventing dementia are different outcomes, and this trial showed only the first. No study-related adverse events were reported. Because the comparison group received education rather than nothing, the trial measured hearing aids against an active alternative, not against doing nothing at all.