Systematic review finds a consistent global link between hearing loss and dementia, suggesting risk management strategies.
OBJECTIVES: Hearing loss is a risk factor for dementia with estimated hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.28-2.39. However, whether intercontinental variability exists in this relationship remains unexplored. METHOD: MEDLINE, PsychInfo, Academic Search Ultimate, Web of Science, and EMBASE were searched, from inception to 2024, for cohort studies of dementia-free individuals with baseline hearing assessments ≥2-year follow-up, and incident dementia outcomes. Random-effect and multilevel models with subgroup difference tests were conducted. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that the association between hearing loss and dementia is consistent globally, though HRs may vary slightly by continent. REGISTRATION: This review was pre-registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024545209) and the OSF (https://osf.io/kew29/).
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Readman et al. (2025) studied this question.
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