There are several established warning signs of dementia, but a new study has identified a new potential signifier for this disease,
The inability to detect speech in a noisy environment is a hallmark of hearing impairment and Oxford researchers now believe it is linked to dementia.
In a study of 82,000, 1,285 people developed dementia and researchers found people who struggled to hear conversation in raucous environments were more likely to get the disease.
The study followed people aged over 60 for 11 years.
Lead author Dr Jonathan Stevenson said: “Difficulty hearing speech in background noise is one of the most common problems for people with age-related hearing impairment.
“This is the first study to investigate its association with dementia in a large population.”
