Hearing Loss and Fall Risk: The Unexpected Link

We wanted to share about this fascinating study that discusses the connection between cognitive, auditory (hearing), and vestibular (balance) functions and fall risk; these three functions have been found to be closely related and may play a large role in fall risk management.

This study, taken on by Joseph Sakumura, AuD, and Richard Gans, PhD, and published in the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, made some significant breakthroughs in the realm of linking auditory functions to fall management.

Many people don’t realize how connected your hearing is to other areas of your health. Untreated hearing loss has been linked to cognitive decline, social isolation, depression and anxiety, and even premature death.

Before you panic, the study from Sakamura and Gans provides some positive advice for those of you struggling to stay steady on your feet: taking care of your ears and your hearing loss with professional audiological care can significantly decrease those concerns.

Auditory Function’s Link to Fall Risk

The study sought to understand how these functions, to do with hearing and memory, could have an impact on your balance when not looked after properly.

The study, which involved almost 600 adults between 18 and 89 years of age, found that “Hearing loss is recognized as the number one modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline. Furthermore, patients with even mild cognitive impairment in domains of; visuo-spatial processing, executive function, memory recall, and reaction times are 14 times more likely to have degraded postural stability and elevated fall risk.”

Falls are a significant cause of injury, hospitalization, and death among older adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 800,000 hospitalizations in the United States are due to harmful falls alone.

By improving your cognitive, vestibular, and auditory functions, you could avoid joining these statistics and leave behind your fear of going up or down the stairs!

Hearing loss is intrinsically linked to your memory and cognition functions: you take in sound with your ears and your brain logs it as information, whether you’re listening to your boss at work, your family at the dinner table, or a friend in conversation.

When you can’t hear as well as you used to, your brain will try to fill in the gaps for you, but the disconnect between your ears and your brain will lead to forgotten information that you didn’t hear well in the first place.

Studies like this one from Sakamura and Gans are crucial to improving our knowledge about how hearing loss is far more than not hearing well. By looking after your hearing, you’re looking after your entire body: sharpening your memory, your reflexes, and your balance, all in one.