Rebecca J Kamil1, Joshua Betz2, Becky Brott Powers3, Sheila Pratt4, Stephen Kritchevsky5, Hilsa N Ayonayon6, Tammy B Harris7, Elizabeth Helzner8, Jennifer A Deal2, Kathryn Martin9, Matthew Peterson10, Suzanne Satterfield11, Eleanor M Simonsick12, Frank R Lin2. 1. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA rkamil1@jhmi.edu. 2. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. 3. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA. 4. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. 5. Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. 6. University of California, San Francisco, USA. 7. National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA. 8. State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA. 9. University of Aberdeen, Scotland. 10. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. 11. University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA. 12. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls. METHOD: Longitudinal analysis of observational data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study of 2,000 participants aged 70 to 79 was conducted. Hearing was defined by the pure-tone-average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better hearing ear. Frailty was defined as a gait speed of <0.60 m/s and/or inability to rise from a chair without using arms. Falls were assessed annually by self-report. RESULTS: Older adults with moderate-or-greater HI had a 63% increased risk of developing frailty (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.26, 2.12]) compared with normal-hearing individuals. Moderate-or-greater HI was significantly associated with a greater annual percent increase in odds of falling over time (9.7%, 95% CI = [7.0, 12.4] compared with normal hearing, 4.4%, 95% CI = [2.6, 6.2]). DISCUSSION: HI is independently associated with the risk of frailty in older adults and with greater odds of falling over time.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls. METHOD: Longitudinal analysis of observational data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study of 2,000 participants aged 70 to 79 was conducted. Hearing was defined by the pure-tone-average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better hearing ear. Frailty was defined as a gait speed of <0.60 m/s and/or inability to rise from a chair without using arms. Falls were assessed annually by self-report. RESULTS: Older adults with moderate-or-greater HI had a 63% increased risk of developing frailty (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.26, 2.12]) compared with normal-hearing individuals. Moderate-or-greater HI was significantly associated with a greater annual percent increase in odds of falling over time (9.7%, 95% CI = [7.0, 12.4] compared with normal hearing, 4.4%, 95% CI = [2.6, 6.2]). DISCUSSION: HI is independently associated with the risk of frailty in older adults and with greater odds of falling over time.
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