Loneliness as a pathway linking hearing decline to cognitive aging: Longitudinal and genetic evidence.
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
- 3MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- 4The School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- 5PsychGen Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
- 6Research Department, Lovisenberg Diakonale Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
- 7Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam UMC location, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Abstract
Introduction
Hearing loss and loneliness are potentially modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia, but it remains unclear whether loneliness represents a causal pathway linking hearing loss to cognitive aging or whether these associations reflect shared vulnerability.Methods
We combined up to 18 years of data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE; N = 10,375) with summary statistics from eight primary genome-wide association study sources and an independent neuroticism dataset used in sensitivity analyses. Parallel-process latent growth curve models examined level and change associations; additional analyses evaluated hearing-aid moderation, Mendelian randomization, multivariable Mendelian randomization, and colocalization.Results
At Wave 7, poorer hearing, greater loneliness, and poorer word-recall performance were associated, with a significant indirect association through loneliness. Evidence for coordinated longitudinal mediation was limited, and the primary change-to-change indirect effect was not significant. Current, but not cumulative, hearing-aid use was associated with a weaker concurrent hearing-loneliness association. Genetic analyses provided little evidence for direct or loneliness-mediated causal effects of hearing phenotypes on Alzheimer's disease or all-cause dementia. Results were more consistent with shared liability, including overlap with neuroticism.Discussion
The findings support late-life associations among hearing difficulty, loneliness, and cognitive performance but provide limited evidence that loneliness is a primary causal pathway linking hearing loss to cognitive aging. Integrating longitudinal and genetic evidence suggests a more complex etiology involving shared liability and supports direct evaluation of hearing care and social connection in intervention studies.
Related
- The Aging Brain Matrix: Cross-Species Evidence Linking FREM3 to Brain and Cognitive Aging
- Linking academic stress to loneliness, anxiety, and depression: The association of problematic micro-drama use among Chinese university students
- Evidence for a cohesion-related function of alpaca hums: Linking automated call detection with GPS data
- Molecular basis of anti-CD36 alloimmunization: transcriptomic evidence linking intronic splice-site mutations to CD36 loss-of-function
- From Access to Stabilisation: A Systems-Level Architecture of Cognitive Pathway Formation
BibTeX
@article{yang2026loneliness,
title = {{Loneliness as a pathway linking hearing decline to cognitive aging: Longitudinal and genetic evidence.}},
author = {Shuai Yang and Matthew D Grilli and Robyn E Wootton and Margot P van de Weijer and Jorien L Treur and Yann C Klimentidis and David A Sbarra},
journal = {Alzheimer's \& dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/alz.71950},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42949226},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Loneliness as a pathway linking hearing decline to cognitive aging: Longitudinal and genetic evidence.
AU - Shuai Yang
AU - Matthew D Grilli
AU - Robyn E Wootton
AU - Margot P van de Weijer
AU - Jorien L Treur
AU - Yann C Klimentidis
AU - David A Sbarra
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
DO - 10.1002/alz.71950
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42949226
AB - Introduction Hearing loss and loneliness are potentially modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia, but it remains unclear whether loneliness represents a causal pathway linking hearing loss to cognitive aging or whether these associations reflect shared vulnerability.Methods We combined up to 18 years of data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE; N = 10,375) with summary statistics from eight primary genome-wide association study sources and an independent neuroticism dataset used in sensitivity analyses. Parallel-process latent growth curve models examined level and change associations; additional analyses evaluated hearing-aid moderation, Mendelian randomization, multivariable Mendelian randomization, and colocalization.Results At Wave 7, poorer hearing, greater loneliness, and poorer word-recall performance were associated, with a significant indirect association through loneliness. Evidence for coordinated longitudinal mediation was limited, and the primary change-to-change indirect effect was not significant. Current, but not cumulative, hearing-aid use was associated with a weaker concurrent hearing-loneliness association. Genetic analyses provided little evidence for direct or loneliness-mediated causal effects of hearing phenotypes on Alzheimer's disease or all-cause dementia. Results were more consistent with shared liability, including overlap with neuroticism.Discussion The findings support late-life associations among hearing difficulty, loneliness, and cognitive performance but provide limited evidence that loneliness is a primary causal pathway linking hearing loss to cognitive aging. Integrating longitudinal and genetic evidence suggests a more complex etiology involving shared liability and supports direct evaluation of hearing care and social connection in intervention studies.
SN - 1552-5260
SN - 1552-5279
ER -