A new study out of Drexel University’s College of Medicine has found that people diagnosed with a voice disorder — without a hearing problem alongside it — had a 58% greater risk of later cognitive impairment or dementia than people with neither condition.
Drexel announced the findings in a September 2026 press release.
Key facts
- Study: “Voice Disorders as Early Biomarkers of Cognitive Decline,” Journal of Voice (peer-reviewed)
- Led by: Anthony G. Russo, with Mary J. Hawkshaw as co-author and senior author Dr. Robert T. Sataloff, chair of Drexel’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
- Sample: 833,417 primary-care patients, sorted into four groups
- Follow-up: at least one year after initial diagnosis
- Voice disorder alone: 58% higher risk of cognitive impairment or dementia
- Hearing loss alone: 27% higher risk
- Both conditions: more than double the risk
How the study was done
The team looked at medical records for 833,417 patients seen at routine primary-care visits, sorting them into four groups: people with a diagnosed voice disorder, people with diagnosed hearing loss, people with both, and people with neither. Everyone was tracked for at least a year after their initial diagnosis to see who went on to develop cognitive impairment or dementia. The study only reported that one-year floor, not an average or maximum follow-up time.
The numbers
Three numbers came out of that comparison. People with a voice disorder alone had a 58% higher risk than people with neither condition. People with hearing loss alone — already a well-established risk factor for dementia — had a 27% higher risk. And people who had both a voice disorder and hearing loss had more than double the risk of those with neither.
The researchers stress this is an association, not proof that a rough or weakened voice causes memory decline.
What counts as a voice disorder
In the study, a “voice disorder” wasn’t simply someone sounding a little hoarse for a day. It meant a medically diagnosed vocal condition on file in a patient’s records — things like a changed pitch, reduced clarity or volume, a smaller vocal range, or pain while speaking or singing. These were conditions patients had already been diagnosed with during ordinary care, not something the research team tested for themselves.
What the researchers say
“Our work shows that voice disorders may be an earlier and stronger sign of cognitive decline than hearing loss alone,” Sataloff said.
That line is worth reading carefully, because it is a statement about risk, not a diagnosis. The study’s authors and outside coverage of it are explicit that this is an observational finding — it shows the two things tend to occur together more often than chance would predict, not that one causes the other. The researchers floated one unproven idea for why a link might exist: difficulty or pain while speaking could lead someone to talk less and pull back from the kind of social and mentally engaging activity that tends to protect cognitive health. That’s a hypothesis, not a finding the study itself tested.
A complicating factor
There’s also a wrinkle worth knowing before drawing conclusions: patients who had both a voice disorder and hearing loss were, on average, older and had higher rates of high blood pressure, heart disease and type 2 diabetes than the other groups. Those are all conditions that carry their own dementia risk, and the study doesn’t fully untangle how much of the elevated risk in that group comes from the voice and hearing problems themselves versus those overlapping health issues.
Why it matters
What the findings point to, more than a warning, is a missed opportunity. One estimate the researchers cite suggests that roughly four in ten adults who develop a voice disorder never seek medical care specifically for that voice problem. That’s a different question from whether they see a doctor at all — the 833,417-patient dataset above is built entirely from people who already showed up to a primary-care visit. It means a lot of people who might benefit from an earlier look at their cognitive health are skipping the visit that could prompt one. The practical takeaway isn’t to panic over a scratchy throat; the finding suggests that a visit for a voice disorder could also be an opportunity to raise cognitive concerns. If hearing loss is present, both issues can be discussed at the same appointment. An ear, nose and throat visit for a voice problem could double as a chance to flag concerns about memory or thinking, rather than treating the two as unrelated.
What’s next
What the study doesn’t answer yet is whether treating a voice disorder changes anyone’s odds of developing dementia down the line — that’s a separate question the researchers say still needs study.