Long-term subjective loneliness in adults after hearing loss treatment.
Jeremy Applebaum, Matthew Hoyer, Joshua Betz and 2 others
PMID 30929531WHAT IT FOUND
Long-term loneliness after hearing aid or cochlear implant treatment was near baseline at five years.
Cochlear implant users improved at 6 and 12 months, but hearing aid users did not.
Key findings
01At five years, loneliness scores were near baseline for both hearing aid users and cochlear implant users.
02Cochlear implant users had significant reductions in loneliness at 6 months (mean change -3.76) and 12 months (mean change -2.99) on a 0-60 scale where lower means less loneliness.
03Hearing aid users' loneliness scores were similar to baseline at all follow-up time points.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
There was no untreated comparison group, so the study cannot show whether loneliness would have changed without hearing loss treatment or with normal aging. Only 81 of 129 contacted participants returned questionnaires at this follow-up (62% response), and missing data were imputed, reducing power. The analysed cohort was mainly non-Hispanic White (90.4%) and well educated (84.3% with a college or associate degree or higher), limiting generalizability. The hearing aid group was more educated and had higher income than the cochlear implant group (p=0.012 and p=0.015). The loneliness measure asks how disconnected someone feels but does not explain why, and psychosocial factors were not assessed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing aids or cochlear implants prevent loneliness over the long term. At five years, loneliness scores were near baseline for both groups, and only cochlear implant users had short-term reductions at 6 and 12 months.