Peracino Andrea
Fondazione Giovanni Lorenzini Medical Science Foundation, Milan, Italy/Houston, Tex., USA.
Audiol Neurootol. 2014;19 Suppl 1:6-9. doi: 10.1159/000371595. Epub 2015 Feb 20.
For some years, policy makers and medical scientists have both begun to focus more on chronic noncommunicable diseases. It is well known that cardio-cerebrovascular disease, tumors, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are considered areas of major interest in many scientific projects and health programs. The economic impact of cardio-cerebrovascular disease in EU alone is more than EUR 200 billion, while tumors have an impact of EUR 150 billion. The direct and indirect cost of brain disorders exceeds EUR 700 billion a year. Among the brain disorders, the devastating impact of dementia on affected individuals and the burden imposed on their families and society has made prevention and treatment of dementia a public health priority. Interventions that could merely delay the onset of dementia by 1 year would result in a more than 10% decrease in the global prevalence of dementia in 2050. Unfortunately, there are no known interventions that currently have such effectiveness. The manifestations of age-related hearing loss in many older adults are subtle and, thus, hearing loss is often perceived as an unfortunate but inconsequential part of aging. Researchers report that hearing loss seems to speed up age-related cognitive decline. Researchers suggest that treating hearing loss more aggressively could help delay cognitive decline and dementia. Furthermore, there is an increasing interest in better understanding the pathophysiologic correlations between hearing loss and dementia. Hearing loss in older adults, in fact, is associated independently with poorer cognitive functioning, incident dementia, and falls. Further research investigating the basis of this connection as well as the pathomechanism of the two diseases will further our ability to treat dementia.
多年来，政策制定者和医学科学家都开始更加关注慢性非传染性疾病。众所周知，心血管疾病、肿瘤、糖尿病和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）在许多科学项目和健康计划中被视为主要关注领域。仅在欧盟，心血管疾病的经济影响就超过2000亿欧元，而肿瘤的影响为1500亿欧元。脑部疾病的直接和间接成本每年超过7000亿欧元。在脑部疾病中，痴呆症对患者个人及其家庭和社会造成的毁灭性影响使得痴呆症的预防和治疗成为公共卫生的优先事项。仅能将痴呆症发病延迟1年的干预措施将导致2050年全球痴呆症患病率下降超过10%。不幸的是，目前尚无已知的干预措施具有如此疗效。许多老年人与年龄相关的听力损失表现较为隐匿，因此，听力损失常被视为衰老过程中不幸但无关紧要的一部分。研究人员报告称，听力损失似乎会加速与年龄相关的认知衰退。研究人员建议，更积极地治疗听力损失可能有助于延缓认知衰退和痴呆症。此外，人们越来越有兴趣更好地理解听力损失与痴呆症之间的病理生理相关性。事实上，老年人的听力损失与较差的认知功能、新发痴呆症和跌倒独立相关。进一步研究这种联系的基础以及这两种疾病的发病机制将提高我们治疗痴呆症的能力。
