Hearing impairment was linked to neuropathological hallmarks of dementia, an autopsy study suggested.

In older adults who were cognitively normal, impaired hearing was associated with tau neurofibrillary degeneration, reported Willa Brenowitz, PhD, MPH, of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and co-authors.

And in people with dementia, hearing loss was tied to microinfarcts but not to tau tangles, the team wrote in Neurology.

"This is really important as it's the first study to show a direct link between hearing loss and greater dementia-related neuropathology," said senior author Kristine Yaffe, MD, also of UCSF.