Middle-age hearing loss tied to dementia

Even mild hearing loss could be a risk factor ‘Stop selling flavored e-cig, hookah products’

NEW YORK, Aug 10, (RTRS): Hearing loss in middle age is associated with higher odds of cognitive decline and dementia in later years, suggests a large study in Taiwan.

Researchers tracked more than 16,000 men and women and found that a new diagnosis of hearing loss between ages 45 and 65 more than doubled the odds of a dementia diagnosis in the next dozen years.

Even mild levels of hearing loss could be a risk factor, so hearing protection, screening and hearing aids may be important means of reducing cognitive risk as well, the study team writes in JAMA Network Open.

“Hearing loss is a potential reversible risk factor for dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease,” said senior study author Charles Tzu-Chi Lee of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.

Research

Past research suggests that about two thirds of the risk for dementia is hereditary or genetic, which means about one third of the risk is from things that are modifiable, Lee noted. Among modifiable risk factors, hearing loss accounts for about 9% of dementia risk, a greater proportion than factors like hypertension, obesity, depression, diabetes and smoking.

“The early identification of hearing loss ... and successful hearing rehabilitation can mitigate the negative effects of hearing loss,” Lee told Reuters Health by email. “However, the ideal time to perform hearing loss screening to reduce the risk of dementia remains unclear.”

Lee and colleague Chin-Mei Liu of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control analyzed data on people aged 45 and older from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. They matched 8,135 patients newly diagnosed with hearing loss between 2000 and 2011 to 8,135 similar individuals without hearing loss and followed them all through 2013.

All were free of dementia at the NEW YORK, Aug 10, (RTRS): Drugmaker Eli Lilly has said that early results from a study suggest that Apple Inc devices, including the iPhone, in combination with digital apps could differentiate people with mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia and those without symptoms.

The study, tested in 113 participants over the age of 60, was conducted by Apple along with Eli Lilly and Evidation Health.

The Apple devices were used along with the Beddit sleep monitoring device and digital apps in the study.

The researchers looked at device usage data and app history of the study participants over 12 weeks.

People with symptoms tended to have slower typing than health volunteers, and received fewer text messages in total.

The participants were also asked to answer two one-question surveys daily as well as perform simple activities every two weeks, such as

start, but over time, 1,868 people developed dementia – and 59% of them came from the hearing loss group.

Among people with hearing loss, new dementia cases were identified at a rate of 19 per 10,000 people, compared with 14 per 10,000 without hearing loss. Overall, hearing loss was associated with a 17% risk increase for dementia, the researchers calculated.

But when they looked at subsets of people, almost all the increased risk was concentrated in the youngest age group. Among those 45-65, dementia risk was 2.21-fold higher with hearing loss.

“The present study suggests that screening for hearing loss should be performed when people are middle

dragging one shape to the other and tapping a circle as fast as possible on an app.

The study also aimed to differentiate people with mild cognitive impairment, the pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer’s disease.

The early results were presented at a conference in Alaska last Thursday.

The US Food and Drug Administration has told four companies to remove 44 of their flavored e-liquid and hookah tobacco products that do not have the required approval for sale in the US, the agency said on Thursday.

The move comes against the backdrop of the FDA’s efforts to curb the usage of the addictive substances among young adults.

The agency said it has issued warning letters to Mighty Vapors LLC, Liquid Labs USA LLC, V8P Juice International LLC and Hookah Imports Inc and has sought their response

aged,” Lee said.

The results factored in variables such as sex, age and insurance type, as well as other known risks for cognitive decline and dementia. Among these, six other conditions were associated with an increased risk of dementia: cerebrovascular disease, diabetes, anxiety, depression, alcohol-related illnesses and head injury.

The study was not designed to determine how hearing loss might contribute to dementia, or if the two conditions share the same cause. One limitation of insurance data, the researchers note, is lack of precision in the dementia diagnoses.

“In an aging population, dementia will present one of the greatest challenges

within 15 days.

The FDA said the products had been introduced into the market after the effective date of a rule that extended FDA’s authority to all tobacco products, thereby making them adulterated or misbranded.

E-cigarettes have existed in a regulatory gray area for years and a US federal judge in July ordered the FDA to implement a 10-month deadline for submitting a formal application by e-cigarette makers to keep their products on the market.

E-cigarettes are generally thought to be safer than traditional cigarettes, but the long-term health effects of the nicotine devices remain largely unknown.

The health agency previously asked nearly 90 makers of Electronic Nicotine Delivery System products for information, including evidence that the product is legally marketed and a number of companies have removed their products from the market.

to society in this century,” said David Loughrey of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience in Dublin, who wasn’t involved in the study.

“There are now more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 5 for the first time in human history,” he told Reuters Health by email. “Pharmacological treatments for the most common cause of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, only offer symptom-modifying effects. This has led to suggestions that a change in approach to prevention rather than treatment after diagnosis may be more beneficial.”

Future studies will investigate whether treating hearing loss can decrease the risk of dementia, the study team writes.