Treating hearing loss with hearing aids and biomarkers of ADRD

 

In older people with hearing loss, new hearing aid prescription had minimal association with plasma ADRD biomarkers after 7 years.

 

Gap.

Treating hearing loss with hearing aids may reduce dementia risk but effects on
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) neuropathology are unclear.
Research question.
Does receiving a new hearing aid prescription influence the plasma concentration of
pTau181, NfL, GFAP, and Aβ 42 / Aβ 40 in older people with hearing loss?
More than the mean: We aimed to investigate the effect of hearing aid prescription
on shifting the mean and 90th percentile of the biomarker concentrations.

 

Design &
observational data
Target trial emulation using data from the ASPREE
study and nested ALSOP cohort
Eligibility criteria
Dementia-free, aged 70+, self-reported hearing
problems, no past hearing aid use
Treatment
strategies Use hearing aids versus do not use hearing aids
Follow-up
Approximately 7 years from when new hearing aid
prescriptions were first reported.
Causal contrast
Effect of new hearing aid prescription among those who
survive to biomarker measurement
Estimation
Multiple imputation for missing data. Effects estimated
with targeted maximum likelihood (mean difference
scale) and IP weighting (quantile difference scale)

 

2842 individuals were included (mean age 75 years, 48% female), with 735 receiving a
new HA prescription by the start of follow-up.
Estimated effects were close to null for all ADRD biomarkers.
Estimated mean differences were similar across baseline effect modifiers.

 

Plasma biomarkers may not capture the main mechanisms through which hearing
aids putatively reduce dementia risk.
Other mechanisms, like reduced social isolation, may be more important.