%0 Journal Article
%T Association of hearing impairment with incident frailty and falls in older adults
%J Journal of aging and health
%D 2015
%A Kamil, Rebecca J.
%A Betz, Joshua
%A Powers, Becky Brott
%A Pratt, Sheila
%A Kritchevsky, Stephen
%A Ayonayon, Hilsa N.
%A Harris, Tammy B.
%A Helzner, Elizabeth
%A Deal, Jennifer A.
%A Martin, Kathryn
%A Peterson, Matthew
%A Satterfield, Suzanne
%A Simonsick, Eleanor M.
%A Lin, Frank R.
%V 28
%N 4
%P 644-660
%X OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls. <br><br>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. <br><br>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]). <br><br>DISCUSSION: HI is independently associated with the risk of frailty in older adults and with greater odds of falling over time.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I SAGE Publishing
%@ 0898-2643
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0898264315608730