TY - JOUR
T1 - Association of Hearing Impairment with Incident Frailty and Falls in Older Adults
AU - Kamil, Rebecca J.
AU - Betz, Joshua
AU - Powers, Becky Brott
AU - Pratt, Sheila
AU - Kritchevsky, Stephen
AU - Ayonayon, Hilsa N.
AU - Harris, Tammy B.
AU - Helzner, Elizabeth
AU - Deal, Jennifer A.
AU - Martin, Kathryn
AU - Peterson, Matthew
AU - Satterfield, Suzanne
AU - Simonsick, Eleanor M.
AU - Lin, Frank R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© SAGE Publications.
PY - 2016/6
Y1 - 2016/6
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Health ABC
KW - falls
KW - frailty
KW - hearing impairment
KW - older adults
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84967155371&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0898264315608730
DO - 10.1177/0898264315608730
M3 - Article
C2 - 26438083
AN - SCOPUS:84967155371
SN - 0898-2643
VL - 28
SP - 644
EP - 660
JO - Journal of Aging and Health
JF - Journal of Aging and Health
IS - 4
ER -