Studies show that patients suffering from high blood pressure also have an increased risk of developing hearing loss and/or tinnitus. Medications to control blood pressure might help reduce the impact of hearing loss.

Patients with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer from hearing loss, possibly because the high glucose levels are damaging the blood vessels in the inner ear. Even those with pre-diabetes have a higher risk.

After accounting for health conditions and other factors, including trouble seeing, hearing impairment was significantly associated with depression, particularly in women. Article warns that healthcare professionals should be aware of the increased risk for depression among adults with hearing loss.

The older hearing impaired population may have smaller social networks, increasing isolation. This increase isolation can amplify loneliness in adults.

Hearing loss is independently associated with incident all-cause dementia. Whether hearing loss is a marker for early-stage dementia or is actually a modifiable risk factor for dementia needs further study.

Male patients with sudden hearing loss had a higher proportion of prior obstructive sleep apnea than non-hearing-loss patients. The same association was not found with female patients.

Older adults with moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a higher rate of hearing loss than those at the same age without kidney disease. An Australian research team followed over 2,900 individuals aged 50+, including over 500 with moderate chronic kidney disease.

An estimated 50 million Americans experience tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and about 90 percent of those also have hearing loss. Tinnitus can be a warning sign for sensorineural hearing loss.

People with mild hearing loss at 25 decibels are three times as likely to experience a fall when compared to peers without hearing loss; the risk of falls increases 1.4 times for each additional 10 decibels of hearing loss.