Hearing aids found to help people live longer

Anyone who is hard of hearing but doesn't wear a hearing aid should think again, as they have been found to help people live longer, according to the University of Southern California (USC).

The little over-the-ear wearables do not just offset hearing loss — they are probably life-savers, going by research carried out by the USC's Keck Medicine and published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, a medical journal.

"We found that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24 percent lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them," said Janet Choi, the lead researcher.