A groundbreaking new study has revealed a surprising connection between hearing loss and heart failure, urging people not to dismiss hearing difficulties as a minor issue.
Researchers in China, analyzing data from 164,431 participants in the UK Biobank study, found that individuals with hearing impairment face a significantly higher risk of developing heart failure—particularly those not using hearing aids.
Over a follow-up period of more than 11 years, 4,449 participants developed heart failure, a chronic condition in which the heart struggles to pump blood effectively.
Symptoms include breathlessness, fatigue, and swelling in the legs or ankles, with over a million people in the UK currently living with the illness.
Participants were grouped based on their results from a digit triplet test (DTT), which measures how well a person can identify spoken numbers against background noise.
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Those with a higher speech reception threshold (SRT)—indicating they required louder sounds to understand speech—were at notably higher risk.
“Compared with those with normal hearing, participants with insufficient hearing, poor hearing, or hearing aid use had higher heart failure risks,” the study authors reported.
Even more concerning, the study identified that those with hearing difficulties, especially individuals who did not wear hearing aids, experienced elevated levels of psychological distress, social isolation, and neuroticism.
“We have been the first to demonstrate that poor hearing ability is significantly associated with a higher risk of incident heart failure in the general population,” the researchers wrote. “Psychological factors, especially psychological distress, play a significant mediating role in this association.”
They stress that hearing health should not be overlooked in cardiovascular care, suggesting routine hearing checks could become part of heart disease risk assessments.
“If further confirmed, hearing impairment may be a potential risk factor or marker for incident heart failure in the general population, highlighting the importance of integrating hearing health assessments into broader cardiovascular risk evaluation frameworks,” the researchers stated.
“Moreover, strengthening psychological intervention in people with hearing impairment may be an important path and strategy to reduce the risk of heart failure.”
