TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Association of hearing impairment with incident frailty and falls in older adults
JO  - Journal of aging and health
A1  - Kamil, Rebecca J.
A1  - Betz, Joshua
A1  - Powers, Becky Brott
A1  - Pratt, Sheila
A1  - Kritchevsky, Stephen
A1  - Ayonayon, Hilsa N.
A1  - Harris, Tammy B.
A1  - Helzner, Elizabeth
A1  - Deal, Jennifer A.
A1  - Martin, Kathryn
A1  - Peterson, Matthew
A1  - Satterfield, Suzanne
A1  - Simonsick, Eleanor M.
A1  - Lin, Frank R.
SP  - 644
EP  - 660
VL  - 28
IS  - 4
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0898-2643
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0898264315608730
ID  - ref1
ER  -