A personalised intervention for hearing care could help protect cognitive health in older adults at risk of dementia, according to a pilot study from researchers at London’s UCL and UCLH.

This was a small trial study, supported by the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, and its promising results mean the investigation can confidently move on to a large-scale study.

Published in the journal Age and Ageing, the study was set in community memory clinics across three NHS Trusts and involved 58 patients aged 55 or older with untreated hearing loss. The results showed that 75% of participants receiving personalised hearing support used their hearing aids daily, compared to just 22% following standard care.

The personalised intervention included four sessions to help people get the most from their hearing aids. These sessions covered fitting and adjusting the devices, setting personal communication goals, practical support to build hearing aid use into daily life, and fine-tuning the settings if needed.

Chief Investigator of the study, Professor Sergi Costafreda (UCL Psychiatry), said: “Our pilot study shows that we can recruit and retain people with mild memory problems in a study like this, and that the intervention was acceptable to patients – with three-quarters of patients in the intervention group using their hearing aids daily. There were indications in our study that people in the intervention group performed better in a cognitive test, but we now need a larger trial where we can properly test this.”

Co-author Professor Anne Schilder (UCL Ear Institute), pointed out that “this group may stand to benefit the most from hearing aids, given the potential role of hearing aids in preserving cognition and independent living.” The study, called Treating Auditory impairment and Cognition Trial (TACT), was funded by Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Source: UCL News