How Untreated Hearing Loss Can Impact Mental Health

Healthy hearing supports a healthy mind. Taking steps to care for your hearing can strengthen mental wellbeing, boost social connections, and help you stay sharp, confident and engaged at every stage of life.

Audiologist Natalie Calderon

Published 8/19/2025,

Updated 11/17/2025

2 min read

Reviewed by

HearUSA editorial team

Hearing loss

On this page

The Connection Between Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline

Untreated Hearing Loss and Mental Health

Early Intervention Is Key

Good Hearing Supports Strong Social Connections

As humans, we naturally love being around people: be it sharing stories, laughing together or sharing moments that help us feel part of a community.

Research consistently shows that strong social engagement is linked to living longer, healthier lives, supported by stronger immunity, less stress and a lower risk of chronic disease.

Hearing loss is about more than hearing, it can affect how connected you feel and make communicating harder.

The Connection Between Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline

How Is Hearing Loss Linked to Depression and Cognitive Decline?

According to the World Report on Hearing from the World Health Organization, hearing loss is a significant contributor to social isolation and loneliness, both of which have been linked to depression¹.

This link is easy to understand: communication is at the heart of human connection. When hearing becomes difficult, everyday conversations can feel exhausting or frustrating, leading people to withdraw from social situations. Over time, social withdrawal can erode relationships and take a serious toll on mental health.

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The Link Between Hearing Loss and Loneliness:

People with untreated hearing loss are more likely to feel isolated.
Hearing loss, loneliness, and cognitive decline are deeply connected.

Together, these three factors can contribute to overall poor mental health and can lead to depression and anxiety.

Supporting Your Hearing Helps Keep Your Brain Sharp

There is a well-established link between hearing loss and cognitive decline¹. As hearing challenges become greater, so does the risk of difficulty with memory, problem-solving and attention.

This is because hearing loss can trigger a chain reaction in the brain. When hearing loss is unaddressed, your brain works harder to interpret unclear sounds, it leaves fewer resources for other important tasks, such as organizing thoughts, retaining memories, and making decisions.

But the impact goes beyond cognitive function. It also puts you at a greater risk of dementia, with hearing loss being the largest potentially modifiable risk factor of age-related dementia.¹

The Association Between Hearing Loss and Dementia

Unaddressed hearing loss has been associated with up to 32% of dementia cases among adults.²
Hearing loss may result in physiological changes in our brains, as they work harder to understand sounds and speech.³
Hearing loss is the number one modifiable risk factor for dementia⁴, and using hearing aids is a key intervention that may help reduce this risk by up to 50%.

This means that with the right hearing support, we can significantly reduce the risk of getting age-related dementia.

Untreated Hearing Loss and Mental Health

Dangers of Untreated Hearing Loss

When hearing becomes harder, it doesn’t just affect your ears. It can quietly affect many areas of life, particularly when it comes to connection and communication.

Over time, the strain of not hearing clearly can lead to frustration, social withdrawal, and emotional fatigue. The good news: early support can help you connect, feel confident and stay engaged in the moments that matter most.

interesting facts

4 Interesting Facts on Hearing Loss and Social Isolation

People with untreated hearing loss have higher rates of depression and a lower quality of life than their peers.
Studies show there is a strong connection between hearing loss and anxiety.¹
When conversations become harder, relationships can feel strained, leading to frustration, anger, and even a potential breakdown in relationships.¹
Untreated hearing loss can undermine your confidence, make clear communication harder, increase stress, and ultimately impact your ability to feel at your best.⁵

Early Intervention Is Key

The Power of Early Intervention

We’ve shared some important insights, but the most encouraging part is that there is a lot you can do. Taking early action can make a huge difference. Early treatment can help keep your brain engaged with sound.

Without regular input, the brain can “forget” how to process it; early intervention can help prevent this and strengthen speech understanding. By providing access to everyday sounds, hearing aids help maintain neural activity, support memory and concentration, and may even slow the progression of hearing loss by reducing the strain on your auditory system⁶.

A hearing check-up and the right support are linked to better quality of life and lower risk of dementia and the side effects associated with untreated hearing loss. The healthier your ears are, the healthier your mind will be, too.

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Sources:

1 World Health Organisation: World report on hearing (3 March 2023): https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240020481

2 Hearing Tracker: New Study Supports Hearing Loss as a Major Factor for People Already at Risk for Dementia (17 April 2025): https://www.hearingtracker.com/news/new-study-supports-hearing-loss-as-a-major-factor-for-people-already-at-risk-of-dementia

3 The Lancet: Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): A multicentre, randomised controlled trial. (18 July 2023): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37478886/

4 The Lancet: Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission (8 August 2020): https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30367-6/fulltext

5 Springer Nature Link: A qualitative systematic review of the impact of hearing on quality of life (23 November 2024): https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11136-024-03851-5

6 Clinical Interventions in Aging: The cognitive and psychosocial effects of auditory training and hearing aids in adults with hearing loss (January 2019): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30666098/

7 The Hearing Review: Quantifying the Obvious: The Impact of Hearing Instruments on Quality of Life (20 January 2000): https://hearingreview.com/uncategorized/quantifying-obvious-impact-hearing-instruments-quality-life

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