Recently published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, Choi (2023) and colleagues examined the associations of hearing loss, hearing aid use, and mortality in a cross-sectional study of 9,885 adults, with a mean age of 48.6 years (SD 18·1) at baseline, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2012.

Based on self-report, participants were separated into groups of non-users, minimal users of hearing aids, and regular users of hearing aids. At a median follow up of 10.4 years, the prevalence of hearing loss was 14.7 percent, and the mortality rate was 13.2 percent.

Among the adults with hearing loss, 12.7 percent were reported to regularly use their hearing aids, and these regular users had a lower adjusted mortality risk when compared to minimal users or non-users when controlling for demographics, hearing thresholds, and medical history.

Adjusted mortality was not different between minimal hearing aid users and non-users. Overall, this survey study suggests that regular hearing aid use in adults was associated with lower risk of mortality when compared to adults who do not use hearing aids regularly.

Reference

Choi JS, Adams ME, Crimmins EM, Lin FR, Ailshire JA. (2024) Association between hearing aid use and mortality in adults with hearing loss in the USA: a mortality follow-up study of a cross-sectional cohort. Lancet Healthy Longev 5(1):e66-e75.

And to back up the statements in the list above, please refer to:

A recent study by Maharani et al. (2021) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 36 studies and found a significant association between hearing loss and cognitive decline in middle-aged and older adults. Lin et al. (2011) conducted a meta-analysis of 40 studies and found a significant association between hearing loss and cognitive decline, particularly in older adults.

An article by Livingston et al. (2021) proposed that hearing loss may contribute to cognitive decline by increasing cognitive load, reducing sensory input, and impairing social engagement.

A longitudinal study by Dawes et al. (2021) found that hearing loss and cognitive decline were bidirectionally associated over a 25-year period.

A recent study by Zhan et al. (2021) found that older adults with untreated hearing loss had a higher risk of cognitive impairment and dementia compared to those with treated hearing loss or normal hearing.

A study by Amieva et al. (2015) found that individuals with untreated hearing loss had a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia compared to those with normal hearing or treated hearing loss.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Wolters et al. (2020) found that age-related hearing loss was a significant risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, independent of other factors such as age, sex, and education.

A recent study by Gallacher et al. (2020) found that even mild hearing loss was associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia over a 20-year period.

An intervention study by Ferguson et al. (2020) found that hearing aid use improved cognitive function and quality of life in older adults with hearing loss.

An intervention study by Amieva et al. (2018) found that hearing aid use improved cognitive function and slowed down the progression of coqnitive decline in older adults with hearing loss.

A recent study by Duggal et al. (2021) found that social isolation resulting from hearing loss was associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Loughrey et al. (2021) found that treating hearing loss may help to slow down the progression of cognitive decline in older adults.

A study by Deal et al. (2021) found that regular hearing screenings and early intervention for hearing loss may help to prevent or delay cognitive decline in middle-aged and older adults.

Equally, a study by Lin et al. (2013) found that regular hearing screenings and prompt treatment of hearing loss may help to preserve cognitive function and improve quality of life in older adults.

If the patient presents to the GP and reports listening difficulties, these screenings should lead to a referral for further audiological investigations, irrespective of the outcome of the screening, to rule out suprathreshold disorders, as well as referrals to other associated specialties.

Source: Audiology News UK issue 01 March-April 2023

Raúl García-Medina

ReSound OMNIA

Want your patients to hear their best in noise?

Now they can.

With ReSound OMNIA™ your patients can hear their best in noise with an incredible 150% improvement in speech understanding*¹. Powered by the industry’s only Organic Hearing™.

Combining the strength of humans and machine with our cutting-edge technology and leading audiological expertise, we developed our most intelligent and automated steering and beamforming system yet. This gives users superior hearing clarity and understanding in all sound environments, so they can love the everyday details in life again.

Advancements for your patients

How we achieved this audiological feat:

Widening our sound environment mapping to 360 All Around
Speeding up our processing and steering for faster mode detection and selection
Narrowing the beamforming to give even more precision for our best speech clarity in any environment

All working at the same time across any sound environment. This enables your patients to automatically tune into what they want to listen to and not have the hearing aids choose for them.

Sounds natural

Hearing in noise is a huge challenge for people with hearing loss. We have taken a great leap forward with the sound benefits that ReSound OMNIA offers, so your patients can automatically listen to who and what they want to, all around, even in noise.

Feels natural

ReSound OMNIA fits your patients’ needs and situations around the clock for great performance all day and the best wearing comfort, in all kinds of weather. It gives peace of mind.

Connects your patients naturally

Seamlessly connects your patients to who and what they love, bringing their world closer.

A successful first fit, naturally

Easily add the finishing touches to patients’ hearing experiences with our simplified fitting flow, such as automated preferences and a push-button connection to the fitting software.

13% improvement to fitting success in Smart Fit 1.15 to previous version of Smart Fit³
91% prefer the new navigation

3. GN A/B Prototype test & Box Build tests, 2022

Powered by
Organic Hearing

ReSound OMNIA is powered by the industry’s only Organic Hearing, our unique approach to creating hearing solutions that sound natural, feel natural and connect your patients naturally to the world.

WELCOME TO RESOUND KEY

Hear with confidence

Our hearing is vital for connecting us to the world and to one another. Enrich your senses again with life’s sounds – we have made your path to better hearing as easy as possible.

Introducing ReSound Key™, hearing aids designed to work comfortably and reliably with your own ears for truly great hearing. They give you the confidence and guidance to grow with your experiences and hear your best every day.

Our natural approach to sound

The inspiration for all our hearing solutions comes from how we hear and interact naturally with the world around us. That is why all ReSound hearing aids are built on our unique Organic Hearing philosophy, which emulates the natural hearing experience as closely as possible.

True clarity

Fully join in conversations with the clear sound quality of ReSound Key. Knowing that you can talk and hear easily gives a welcome confidence boost.

ReSound ONE: an entirely new class of hearing aids that offers a truly individualized hearing experience and the best sound quality for every user.

ReSound ONE: an entirely new class of hearing aids that offers a truly individualized hearing experience and the best sound quality for every user

Just like a fingerprint, each person’s hearing is unique. Yet, the most commonly worn hearing aids use a standardized approach modeled on an ‘average ear’, which can often compromise sound quality. ReSound ONE is a long-awaited breakthrough that gives everyone a solution individualized precisely to their own hearing anatomy.

BALLERUP, Denmark – GN Hearing, the global leader in hearing aid innovation, today unveils ReSound ONE™, a revolutionary new hearing aid* that solves one of the most enduring challenges for people with hearing loss. This unique solution places an additional microphone inside the ear canal, for the first time, allowing people relying on hearing aids to experience the world with their own ears while preserving the comfort of an open-fit device. Now every user can enjoy the benefits of superior sound quality and hear conversations better in noisy environments.With its Organic Hearing philosophy, GN has always taken its design inspiration from how humans hear naturally and seeks to mimic this within its technology as closely as possible. Following this approach, ReSound ONE uniquely adapts to the needs and lifestyle of every individual rather than the other way around.

The outer ear (pinna) is designed by nature to work like an acoustic antenna. It helps the brain localize and tune in to a particular sound, for example when listening to a specific voice in a crowded café. However, the most popular styles of hearing aids (Receiver-In-Earand Behind-The-Ear models) capture sound from microphones that sit behind the ear and then approximate the effect of the pinna. The result is an averaged and incomplete reproduction of sound, making it hard for the brain to achieve its natural localization and noise-cancelling function. In fact, of the 79 million people who wear hearing aids globally,1 93% report having trouble hearing in noisy environments and 55% get confused about where sounds come from.²

ReSound ONE is the world’s first full-featured* hearing aid with a Microphone & Receiver-In-Ear design (M&RIE) that uses the unique shape of every individual’s ear to collect sound. This remarkable innovation has been achieved with a radical new receiver system combined with all-new Digital Feedback Suppression (DFS Ultra III) enabled by GN’s new and most powerful sound-processing chipset ever. By picking up sound directly inside the ear, ReSound ONE gives the brain everything it needs to tune in to individual voices, as well as significantly reducing background noise. Clinical studies show that all hearing aid users benefit from listening to sounds collected with their own ears, with 90% of users preferring the sound quality of ReSound ONE with M&RIE instead of only the microphone behind the ear.^3&⁴

GN Hearing CEO and President, Gitte Aabo explains, “I am very proud that, once again, GN is first in the industry with ground-breaking innovation that will make a genuine difference in how people experience conversations and sounds around them. Placing a microphone into the ear with an open-fit hearing aid is something the industry has battled for many years to achieve. This technology will allow people with hearing loss to feel that they are literally getting their own hearing back and hearing the way nature intended. ReSound ONE will boost the communication, relationships and confidence of every individual.”

Additionally, ReSound ONE incorporates new All Access Directionality and the user-activated Ultra Focus settings. These enhanced operating modes significantly improve speech recognition while preserving spatial perception in complex sound and noise situations. ReSound ONE includes unmatched rechargeability and extensive connectivity options to both iOS and Android™ smartphones for streaming and hearing aid control.

ReSound ONE is available from August 27, 2020 in rechargeable and non-rechargeable models. This technology is also available in new Beltone Imagine hearing aids.

For further information, visit the ReSound Newsroom and read more about the Organic Hearing philosophy.

Learn more about GN’s 2020 and beyond strategy with focus on individualized customer experiences.

ReSound LiNX Quattro

Expand your world with an unmatched quality of sound

Find out more HERE

The Binaural Advantage

If you have hearing loss in both ears (bilateral hearing loss), then you are most likely a candidate for two hearing aids, which is called binaural hearing aids. While a hearing healthcare professional can best determine if you are a candidate for two hearing aids, the ultimate decision-maker concerning binaural instruments is the person who will wear them. It is important that the person with the hearing loss be given the chance to experience binaural hearing aid amplification before a decision on one or two hearing aids is made. Similar to the way refractory problems in both eyes are treated with a pair of glasses, it makes sense that bilateral hearing loss should be treated with binaural hearing aids. Let me share with you why two hearing aids are better than one.

Better understanding of speech. By wearing two hearing aids rather than one, selective listening is more easily achieved. This means your brain can focus on the conversation you want to hear. Research shows that people wearing two hearing aids routinely understand speech and conversation significantly better than people wearing one hearing aid.

Better understanding in group and noisy situations. Speech intelligibility is improved in difficult listening situations when wearing two hearing aids.

Better ability to tell the direction of sound. This is called localization. In a social gathering, for example, localization allows you to hear from which direction someone is speaking to you. Also, localization helps you determine from which direction traffic is coming or where your children or grandchildren are playing. Simply put, with binaural hearing, you will better detect where sounds are coming from in every situation.

Better sound quality. When you listen to a stereo system, you use both speakers to get the smoothest, sharpest, most natural sound quality. The same can be said of hearing aids. By wearing two hearing aids, you increase your hearing range from 180 degrees reception with just one instrument, to 360 degrees. This greater range provides a better sense of balance and sound quality.

Smoother tone quality. Wearing two hearing aids generally requires less volume than one. The need for less volume results in less distortion and better reproduction of amplified sounds.

Wider hearing range. A person can hear sounds from a further distance with two ears, rather than just one. A voice that’s barely heard at 10 feet with one ear can be heard up to 40 feet with two ears.

Better sound identification. Often, with just one hearing aid, many noises and words sound alike. But with two hearing aids, as with two ears, sounds are more easily distinguishable.

Keeps both ears active resulting in potentially less hearing loss deterioration. Research has shown that when only one hearing aid is worn, the unaided ear tends to lose its ability to hear and understand. This is clinically called the auditory deprivation effect. Wearing two hearing aids keeps both ears active.

Hearing is less tiring and listening more pleasant. More binaural hearing aid wearers report that listening and participating in conversation is more enjoyable with two instruments, instead of just one. This is because they do not have to strain to hear with the better ear. Thus, binaural hearing can help make life more relaxing.

Feeling of balanced hearing. Two-eared hearing results in a feeling of balanced reception of sound, also known as the stereo effect, whereas monaural hearing creates an unusual feeling of sounds being heard in one ear.

Greater comfort when loud noises occur. A lower volume control setting is required with two hearing aids than is required with one hearing aid. The result is a better tolerance of loud sounds.

Reduced feedback and whistling. With a lower volume control setting the chances of hearing aid feedback is reduced.

Tinnitus Masking. About 50% of people with ringing in their ears report improvement when wearing hearing aids. If a person with tinnitus wears a hearing aid in only one ear, there will still be ringing in the ear that does not have a hearing aid.

Consumer preference. An overwhelming majority of consumers who have hearing loss in both ears, choose two hearing aids over one, when given the choice to hear binaurally.

Customer satisfaction. Research with more than 5,000 consumers with hearing loss in both ears demonstrated that binaurally fit subjects are more satisfied than people fit with one hearing aid.

Logically, just as you use both eyes to see clearly, you need two healthy ears to hear clearly. Before you decide on one hearing aid, try two. Your hearing healthcare professional can demonstrate to you the binaural advantage experience either through headphones (during testing), probe microphones, master hearing aids, or during your trial fitting. Decide for yourself.

Sergei Kochkin, Ph.D. – Better Hearing Institute, Washington, DC

http://www.betterhearing.org/hearingpedia/hearing-aids/binaural-advantage

Hearing-Health-Diabetes-Could-Increase-Risk-for-Hearing-Loss-805x503-1-805x480.jpg

The Link Between Diabetes and Hearing Loss

By Allison Tsai

May 2018

Haleigh Eason/Mittera

You go to routine doctor visits for all kinds of preventive care: eye exams, A1C tests, blood pressure

checks, and more. But when was the last time you had a hearing test? If you can’t remember, it’s likely

been too long. “Anyone with diabetes should have their hearing monitored annually,” says Jackie Clark,

PhD, president of the American Academy of Audiology and clinical professor at the School of Behavioral

and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas in Dallas.

6 Signs of Hearing Loss

You have trouble hearing when there is background noise, such as at a restaurant.

Your balance is a bit off when you stand up.
You can’t hear beeps or alarms.
You have difficulty following conversations
You can’t hear when a person’s back is turned.
You regularly turn up the volume on your TV or cell phone.

The Stats

People with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to have hearing loss as those without diabetes.

People with prediabetes have a 30 percent higher rate of hearing loss than those without the disease.

SOURCES: 2009 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; Annals of Internal Medicine, July 2008

The Theories

The effect of diabetes on the ear is a bit of a mystery. Here’s what scientists think might be happening.

Flying High. Chronic high blood glucose can damage blood vessels, disrupting blood flow. The cochlea, a

small organ responsible for our hearing, is dependent on good blood flow.

Roller Coaster Ride. Damage to the blood vessels in the ear may be a result of blood glucose swings—

from high highs to low lows.

Under Pressure. The cochlea may become inflamed, from chronic high blood glucose or rapid swings in

glucose, and the resulting swelling damages the tissue and blood vessels.

The Risks

Diabetes itself is a risk factor for hearing loss, but there are other factors at play. You may be at greater

risk if you are…

65 or older
Regularly exposed to loud noises
Genetically predisposed to hearing loss
Male
Non-hispanic white
Experiencing other ear-related diseases or infections
Living with heart disease
Smoking
Not hitting your blood glucose targets
Taking medications (such as for chemotherapy) that can damage the inner

The Treatment

Unfortunately, once the inner ear becomes damaged, you can’t restore hearing. If you’ve noticed signs of

hearing loss, here are your next steps:

Discuss your hearing loss with your primary care provider. He or she may refer you to an otolaryngologist

(a doctor who specializes in diseases of the ear, nose, and throat), as well as an audiologist, who will

conduct a hearing test. Medicare may cover the test if your doctor ordered it to diagnose a medical

condition, but some plans don’t cover routine hearing tests. Private insurance plans often do, but check to

make sure.

Devices that can help you hear better include hearing aids and amplifiers for your phone. Cochlear

implants—small devices that are surgically implanted into the inner ear to create a sense of sound—are

another option and, in certain circumstances, are covered by Medicare. You may decide to work with an

audiologist, who can teach you strategies such as lip reading.

Type 1 Talk

Research on diabetes and hearing loss has, historically, focused on people with type 2. Because of that,

there is a lot less known about the effects of type 1 on hearing loss, says Catherine Cowie, PhD, senior

advisor for the diabetes epidemiology program at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and

Kidney Diseases. But hearing checks are still a must.

Balancing Act

Your inner ear is responsible for more than just hearing. It also helps orient the brain to your center of

gravity. If the vestibular system (the part of the ear involved in balance) is also damaged, your ability to

balance and walk may be affected. That can increase falls.

Plugged In

Want to bask in the bliss of a live concert? You can, with some protection. Foam earplugs are one of the

best, and cheapest, ways to protect your hearing, says Clark, but most people aren’t using them correctly.

Get the best plug protection with this step-by-step guide:

1. Place the foam earplug lengthwise between your forefinger, middle finger, and thumb, and roll it

until the earplug is about one-quarter its original size.

2. Once it’s small enough, quickly stick the entire length of the earplug in your ear canal.

3. Hold the earplug in your ear and let it expand.

4. Push the outside edges back into the ear as the plug expands.

Hearing loss can be something that happens suddenly if you’re exposed to a loud sound or bang. It can also happen slowly over a long period of time, which is often the case with age-related hearing loss. Understanding hearing loss is an important first step towards doing something about it.

What is hearing loss?

Hearing loss means you have lost the ability to hear certain sounds. Maybe you can no longer hear high-pitched tones, like the voices of women or children. Or maybe you can’t pick out a single voice if there is a lot of conversation in the background.

Sometimes hearing loss is temporary, like a ringing in your ears after a noisy concert. Most often, it is permanent because the mechanisms that help you hear have been damaged.

Levels of hearing loss

Hearing loss can be divided into four categories depending on the level of hearing loss*: mild, moderate, severe and profound. Watch the video to understand these four levels better.

*World Health Organization, 2016

Get a feel for what’s it like to live with a hearing loss

Click below to hear what everyday situations such as going to the restaurant and listening to music sounds like with different levels of hearing loss.

Click here to take our free online ReSound hearing loss test.

What is an audiogram?

When your specialist describes your hearing loss, he or she will always refer to the severity of the loss and its “configuration”, which means the pitches or frequencies you are unable to hear.

These tones will be placed on a graph called an audiogram.

An audiogram shows which frequencies you are able to hear, and at what volume. The audiogram gives your hearing professional a good idea of how severe your hearing loss is, and helps your professional select the best treatment options for you.

Parts of the ear and hearing loss types

The ear is made up of three parts:

the outer ear
the middle ear
the inner ear

Knowing how the ear works is important for understanding hearing loss. Hearing loss can be divided into three types depending on which part of the ear is affected.

180308-cyclists-al-1106_898c612510f0d48d9915517ab3f47201.focal-1000x500.jpg

Here’s more evidence that regular exercise really is the best medicine: avid cyclists as old as 79 had healthy muscle and immune function as good as people 30 years younger who did not exercise.

British researchers tested the muscles and immune systems of a group of middle-aged and elderly cyclists and compared them to younger people who do not exercise regularly.

Hearing Aid Use and Adult Mortality

THE COGNITION,AUDITION, AND AMPLIFICATION CONUNDRUM

NEW ReSound OMNIA

ReSound OMNIA