Lyu Jiyoung, Kim Hae-Young
Institute of Aging, Hallym University, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.
Department of Health Policy and Management, College of Health Sciences & Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Psychiatry Investig. 2018 Sep;15(10):926-934. doi: 10.30773/pi.2018.06.28.2. Epub 2018 Sep 13.
Sensory impairments, such as vision and hearing impairments, increase with age, and studies have shown that self-reported vision and hearing impairments are associated with adverse mental health outcomes in later life. Although gender differences may exist in the associations between sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes, little research has been done examining gender differences in the above associations. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between self-reported sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes with the aim of determining whether any association differs by gender.
The study sample was drawn from a nationally representative data set, the 2012 Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and the final sample consisted of 2,167 females and 1,664 males aged 65 and over. Self-reported sensory impairments were categorized into four groups: no sensory impairment (reference), vision impairment only, hearing impairment only, and dual sensory impairment. Depression and cognitive impairment were used as dependent variables in separate analyses.
Adjusted for confounding variables, results from a multivariate analysis showed that vision impairment was significantly associated with depression only among women. Moreover, hearing impairment was significantly associated with cognitive impairment for women, but not for men. Having dual sensory impairment was associated with depression only among men, while having dual sensory impairment was associated with cognitive impairment only among women.
These findings suggest that the associations between sensory impairments and geriatric mental health outcomes vary according to gender. Therefore, gender-specific strategies in healthcare policies are needed.
视力和听力障碍等感官损伤会随着年龄增长而增加，且研究表明，自我报告的视力和听力障碍与晚年不良心理健康结果相关。尽管感官损伤与老年心理健康结果之间的关联可能存在性别差异，但很少有研究考察上述关联中的性别差异。因此，本研究的目的是调查自我报告的感官损伤与老年心理健康结果之间的关系，以确定是否存在因性别而异的关联。
研究样本取自具有全国代表性的数据集——2012年韩国老龄化纵向研究，最终样本包括2167名65岁及以上的女性和1664名65岁及以上的男性。自我报告的感官损伤分为四组：无感官损伤（参照组）、仅视力损伤、仅听力损伤和双重感官损伤。在单独分析中，将抑郁和认知障碍用作因变量。
在对混杂变量进行调整后，多变量分析结果显示，仅在女性中，视力损伤与抑郁显著相关。此外，听力损伤与女性的认知障碍显著相关，但与男性无关。双重感官损伤仅在男性中与抑郁相关，而双重感官损伤仅在女性中与认知障碍相关。
这些发现表明，感官损伤与老年心理健康结果之间的关联因性别而异。因此，医疗保健政策中需要针对性别的策略。
