Retired schoolteacher Lynn Goodwin wasnât sure she needed any help with her hearing.
âI didnât wear hearing aids, and I thought I was doing fine,â she said. âBut at the same time, I had found myself increasingly asking friends or my two sons, âWhat did you say?â and I was at a point where I knew hearing aids might be in my future.â
That changed when the 65-year-old received a call from National Institutes of Health-funded researchers at the ±«Óătv Auditory Rehabilitation and Clinical Trials Laboratory inviting her to participate in an intensive pilot study of seniors with minimal hearing loss.
Lynn Goodwin, schoolteacher & ±«Óătv Health patient.
The Early Age-Related Hearing Loss Investigation pilot study, known as PEARHLI, aims to evaluate how hearing aids impact adults between the ages of 55 and 75 with mild hearing loss â evaluating how improved hearing affect communication, physical health, mental health and overall wellbeing.
The clinical study is led by Victoria Sanchez of the ±«Óătv Health Morsani College of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, and Michelle Arnold and Theresa Chisholm of the ±«Óătv College of Behavioral & Community Sciences Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Together, theyâve been leading research on the effects of auditory wellness on health for more than a decade â collaborating with researchers from across the world.
The results of the yet-to-be published study are dramatic. Patients with mild hearing loss who received hearing aids, along with education, counseling and self-management support â reported a myriad of benefits. Many patients say they experienced an increased desire to engage in the world around them rather than withdraw, becoming more physically active and feeling happier overall.
âA number of our study participants came to us saying, âIâm not really sure what you can do for me,ââ said doctoral student Sarah Bochat, who was one of the audiologists on the study. âThey would say, âIâll try this out, but I have reservations due to hearing about other friends and family with negative prior hearing aid experiences.â And that was the case when I called Lynn Goodwin. She was on the fence about whether she should even join the study.â
Goodwin ultimately signed on because she felt she had nothing to lose. She never dreamed of how much she was about to gain: a significant change in her ability to pick up bits of conversation she previously missed, and a greater sense of connectedness with the people around her.
Comprehensive intervention is key
The key for Goodwin, as with all 30 participants who recently completed the PEARHLI study, was to have the hearing aids customized and fine-tuned for clarity and comfort roughly every two weeks, ârather than buying a set of hearing devices from a store independently and going through it alone, with no guidance is often a recipe for frustration and a negative experience,â she said.
âThese clinical research studies are mutually beneficial. Patients benefit from top-notch clinical care while also giving us the data we need to evaluate the effects of better hearing on living better. Hearing aids have amazing benefits beyond just enhanced communication,â Sanchez said. âBecause patients are hearing sounds more clearly, they are able to fully participate in their activities, adapt better to challenging environments, and have a better sense of self. There are many hypotheses that when you fully engage your sensory systems, people gain a better sense of their physical self, they are more confident and can mentally and cognitively engage more efficiently.â
The ARCT Lab team also underscores a physical benefit from improved hearing in the form of better balance and fewer falls.
Victoria Sanchez, associate professor of Otolaryngology.
âSometimes people are so focused on hearing that they may not notice that their feet could be tripping up,â Sanchez said. âHave you ever stopped walking to concentrate on a conversation? Or stop moving to think through a difficult problem? People with normal hearing do this often, they focus all their cognitive resources and mental power on the task at hand; so think about that for someone who has hearing loss â effortful listening can distract our brain from controlling our postural stability and missing sounds from our surroundings can make it difficult to move safely without important spatial cues. I believe when you alleviate hearing problems, then you have more resources to be more active and engaged.â
ARCT Lab investigators Arnold, Chisolm and Sanchez recently contributed to a publication that reports reduced falls among patients who received hearing aids. This study was part of the landmark, multi-institution randomized controlled clinical trial known as the ACHIEVE Study. Published in Lancet in 2023, results show that hearing aids slowed down cognitive decline in older adults.
âThereâs no question the right hearing aids, working with an audiologist, lead to a better quality of life as we age,â Goodwin said. âI would encourage people who suspect hearing loss is happening â and it is going to happen â to jump on it. Donât wait until youâre 80, because you wonât know what youâve been missing all that time.â
Goodwin now has an idea, judging from how well she can hear during lunch outings with friends. She said, âI wasnât at a point where I was choosing to stay home, but now if Iâm at a table with six other women, it makes it much easier to hear all of the conversation!â
She also said she stays more connected to her family and friends because she has her hearing aids connected to her cellphone, allowing her to stream phone conversations, but also allowing her to make adjustment to her hearing aids directly in the cellphone app. âYou can use an app to filter out background noise,â she said. âAnd the hearing aids also connect to my phone via Bluetooth, which makes talking on the phone much easier, too.â
Hearing and brain health
Another PEARHLI study participant, retired executive secretary Pam Burnham, reported similar outcomes after participating in the study. Burnham, 72, learned she had slight hearing loss in a trip to the audiologist in 2022. A widow, Burnham was concerned about the high price of hearing aids, so her primary care doctor recommended she consider joining the ARCT Lab studies.
âIt was a wonderful experience,â Burnham said. âAnd once I got my hearing aids, I realized, especially going out to dinner, how much I wasnât catching. I have talked to so many people who may be in denial or simply donât want to deal with hearing aids. I say, âI understand itâs a hassle, but your hearing also affects your cognitive abilities. So, when you get your hearing right, that helps your brain work better.â
±«Óătvâs recently completed PEARHLI study is part of yet another larger clinical trial being conducted with Columbia University, the Early Age-Related Hearing Loss Investigation, or EARHLI study.
âSome of our past work had been with adults in their 70s and 80s, but patients who are in their 50s and 60s also have hearing loss,â Sanchez said. âAnd we need to investigate the global benefits of hearing intervention in midlife too. We did the PEARHLI pilot study to prepare for the study weâre now doing with Columbia, which will also include functional magnet brain imaging.â
If the pilot is any indication, EARHLI may well underscore several fundamental findings.
âThereâs been a bit of controversy regarding how much benefit can be expected in individuals with mild hearing loss, simply because itâs not severe,â Bochat said. âBut here, the remarkable piece is that even in these folks with mild hearing loss, they report feeling like a different person. They say things like, âI didnât know what I was missing.â Or âIâm happierâ and âIâm getting back to the previous life I enjoyed.ââ
Sanchez puts it another way, not in values on a medical chart but values in lifestyle.
âMaybe you stopped going to lunch with your friends because you just couldnât hear well and it was exhausting to listen. But with the proper hearing intervention, you start going to more lunches and maybe join a walking group because you can hear better and are more confident in your surroundings. Now you have an even bigger friend group. And instead of slowing down, youâre staying active, moving your body and are more physically able to do things you want to do â or doing new things you never tried yet.â
Sanchez reflects on the ARCT Lab and the collaborations at many institutions that continue to produce high-impact research. âThe ARCT Lab is an exemplary symbol of âONE ±«Óătv,â where our research team spans cross different colleges, many campuses and different yet complimentary expertise and disciplines. All of us collaborating together allows us to ask and answer important health questions not only dealing with physiological health, but also emotional and psychosocial wellbeing.â
The result of their research: Improved hearing has a far-reaching impact on peopleâs lives in sometimes surprising ways.
To stay connected with ARCT Labâs research and opportunities to participate or collaborate, please .
Video by Allison Long, ±«Óătv Health Communications.