How genes and life experiences link hearing loss, thinking skills, and dementia risk
Official title: Shared Genetic and Environmental Influences on Age-Related Hearing Loss, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia Risk
Funded at Boston Children's Hospital · NIH-11312704 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether shared genes and everyday environmental factors explain why people with age-related hearing loss often have memory and thinking problems and a higher chance of dementia.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston Children's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | May 15, 2023 |
| Project end | April 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $716,945 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AG078423-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11312704 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are Mexican American adults willing to complete hearing and cognitive testing, provide blood or genetic samples, and share medical and location-related information—especially older adults or those with hearing loss or a family history of dementia.
✕Less likely to help
People seeking immediate treatment for hearing loss or dementia symptoms, those unwilling to provide blood/genetic samples or medical records, or individuals outside the recruited cohorts are unlikely to get direct benefit from participating.
What this research studies
If you join, researchers will measure your hearing and give simple tests of memory and thinking. They will collect blood samples to check dementia-related proteins (t-tau, p-tau, Aβ42/40, and NfL) and obtain genetic (whole-genome) data. The team will also use medical records and neighborhood/location data to study environmental influences. The project expands a Mexican American participant group by 600 people to reach about 1,300 total for stronger genetic and environmental analyses.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify people at higher dementia risk earlier and point to prevention or personalized care strategies tied to hearing and other factors.
How similar studies have gone: Previous studies have linked hearing loss to higher dementia risk and found genetic correlations in Mexican American families, but identifying the specific shared genetic and environmental pathways remains largely new.
Where this research is happening
-
Boston Children's Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Mathias, Samuel Robert — Boston Children's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Mathias, Samuel Robert
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.