| Title | A Newly Identified Impairment in Both Vision and Hearing Increases the Risk of Deterioration in Both Communication and Cognitive Performance |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2022 |
| Authors | Guthrie D.M, Williams N., Campos J., Mick P., Orange J.B, Pichora-Fuller M.K, Savundranayagam M.Y, Wittich W., Phillips N.A |
| Journal | Canadian journal on aging: La revue canadienne du vieillissement |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pagination | 363-376 |
| Keywords | *hearing impairment/ep [Epidemiology], *visual disorder/ep [Epidemiology], Cognition, complication, Female, Hearing, hearing test, Human, interpersonal communication, Male, psychology |
| Abstract | Vision and hearing impairments are highly prevalent in adults 65 years of age and older. There is a need to understand their association with multiple health-related outcomes. We analyzed data from the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC). Home care clients were followed for up to 5 years and categorized into seven unique cohorts based on whether or not they developed new vision and/or hearing impairments. An absolute standardized difference (stdiff) of at least 0.2 was considered statistically meaningful. Most clients (at least 60%) were female and 34.9 per cent developed a new sensory impairment. Those with a new concurrent vison and hearing impairment were more likely than those with no sensory impairments to experience a deterioration in receptive communication (stdiff = 0.68) and in cognitive performance (stdiff = 0.49). After multivariate adjustment, they had a twofold increased odds (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1,87, 2.35) of deterioration in cognitive performance. Changes in sensory functioning are common and have important effects on multiple health-related outcomes. |
| DOI | 10.1017/S0714980821000313 |
