[bkfunk]

This is a study of people in their 70s. The vast majority of people with hearing loss in their 70s lost it late in life; they have no Deaf/HH community, they almost never learn to sign, and they often struggle to adjust for their loss of hearing.

The study you linked talks about reduced stimulation, and in particular _social_ stimulation:

> when an individual suffers from moderate to severe hearing loss, they are less likely to participate in social activities. Perhaps they are embarrassed about their hearing loss. Or they may simply find it unrewarding to attend a social event when they cannot hear what is going on.

People who are born deaf/hh , or who lose their hearing early in life, if they are allowed to access and participate Deaf/HH communities and spaces, simply do not have any of these difficulties in social contexts within those communities.

Martha’s Vineyard had an unusually high rate of congenital deafness for centuries [1]. It became a place where everybody, deaf and hearing alike, used sign language regularly. In such a society, being deaf was not a significant impediment to participating in social society at all; I am aware of no evidence that would suggest the dementia rates would be higher for the deaf residents just because of their deafness.

A disability is only a disability in a given context; for some conditions (eg advanced ALS), they are disabling in almost all contexts, while for others (eg a food allergy), they are disabling in a relatively narrow set of contexts. The relationship to dementia is caused by the hearing loss mis-fitting the individual’s context; people with the same condition but different contexts would not be deprived of stimulation and therefore not susceptible to dementia in the same way.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha's_Vineyard?wprov=sfti1#... (Martha’s Vineyard sign language is a major source for what became American Sign Language. The other was French Sign Language, which is why British Sign Language and ASL are quite different despite sharing the same local spoken language)

[pugworthy]

I 100% agree with the line you quote and refute in your reply, which I've repeated below...

> when an individual suffers from moderate to severe hearing loss, they are less likely to participate in social activities. Perhaps they are embarrassed about their hearing loss. Or they may simply find it unrewarding to attend a social event when they cannot hear what is going on.

This has been my life experience since the late 60's. It's my life right now.

You replied...

> People who are born deaf/hh , or who lose their hearing early in life, if they are allowed to access and participate Deaf/HH communities and spaces, simply do not have any of these difficulties in social contexts within those communities.

As someone who's been hard of hearing for most of their life, I'm curious exactly where these "HH communities" might have been in 1969, or the 70's, or 80's, or even now in the 2020's? Beyond the occasional subreddit that is. I suppose in elementary school the teachers could have put me in special ed classes. Or made me sit in the front of the class all the time. I'm glad they didn't do either.

[cardiffspaceman]

The local community college used to show lectures for certain classes on the cable TV. They had lectures on “Deaf Culture”. The lecturer would use the word “hearies” and generally made a good case for the existence of deaf culture. I am a “heary” and I found these lectures eye-opening.