Having Both Hearing and Vision Loss May Double Risk of Dementia

A study in Neurology suggests the loss of both hearing and vision may elevate the risk of developing dementia and cognitive decline later on, reports EurekAlert . The researchers studied 6,520 people between the ages of 58 and 101. At the beginning of the study, 932 subjects had normal seeing and hearing, 2,957 had either visual or hearing impairment, and 2,631 had both impairments. Dementia was more than twice as common in the cohort with both hearing and vision loss at the start of the study, with 8 percent of that group having dementia then, compared to 2.4 percent with one sensory impairment and 2.3 percent with no impairment. Over a six-year follow-up period, 245 people developed dementia, and 146 of the 1,964 subjects with both impairments developed dementia, versus 69 of the 2,396 people with one impairment and 14 of the 737 with no impairments. Moreover, dementia occurred in 16 of 142 people who could not determine whether they had a sensory impairment. Those with both hearing and vision loss were twice as likely to develop dementia than the group with normal sensory function, while those with only one impairment were no more likely to develop dementia than those with normal sensory function.