Hearing loss, hearing-aid use, and mortality risk: individual participant data meta-analysis of population-based studies from Australia, Iceland, and the USA and a replication study from Norway

Hearing loss is associated with poorer health, depression, cognitive decline, and perhaps, with increased mortality risk. Whether hearing aids ameliorate this association is not well understood. We conducted a meta-analysis with a replication study to examine associations between hearing loss, current use of hearing aids, and mortality.

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This meta-analysis provides the strongest population-level evidence to date that hearing loss is associated with increased mortality and that hearing-aid use may attenuate that risk — audiologists should use this evidence when counselling patients on uptake.

High-quality individual participant data meta-analysis elevates the evidence base connecting untreated hearing loss to mortality, strengthening the public-health case for hearing-aid provision and uptake.

1. 01Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis — the highest form of pooled observational evidence.
2. 02Data drawn from population-based cohorts in Australia, Iceland, USA, and replicated in Norway.
3. 03Examines both hearing loss severity and hearing-aid use as predictors of mortality.
4. 04Hearing-aid use may be associated with reduced mortality risk compared to untreated hearing loss.
5. 05Published in Lancet Healthy Longevity, signalling high editorial scrutiny.

PMID

42869063

DOI

10.1016/j.lanhl.2026.100903.

Journal

Lancet Healthy Longevity

Publication type

meta_analysis

Evidence level

2a

Population

Adults from population-based cohort studies in Australia, Iceland, USA, and Norway

Intervention

Hearing-aid use in adults with hearing loss

Comparator

No hearing-aid use / normal hearing