People with hearing loss say it feels easier to listen when they wear hearing aids, even though tests don’t show their brains are working any better at processing sound.

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.

No matter how old you are, if you have hearing loss and use a hearing aid, your age won’t change how well you understand speech or how hard you feel you have to listen.

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.

People with hearing loss who use hearing aids can understand speech better—by a noticeable amount—in quiet rooms and slightly better in noisy places where people are talking, making conversations clearer.

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.