Older adults who were having mild memory or thinking problems got noticeably better at memory tests after wearing hearing aids for three months.

Even if an older person has worse memory or thinking skills, it doesn’t change how much better they feel or how much easier it is to listen after getting hearing aids — the hearing aids help just as much no matter their brain health.

For older people with moderate hearing loss, using hearing aids for seven years doesn’t seem to make their memory or thinking skills noticeably better or worse than not using them.

Wearing hearing aids doesn’t seem to make your memory or thinking skills better on tests, even though you might feel like it’s easier to listen and understand people.

Older people with moderate hearing loss who use hearing aids may be less likely to develop memory problems or dementia over seven years, but the data isn’t strong enough to say for sure it’s because of the hearing aids.