Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2021 Jan 1;76(1):195-200. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbz094.
Hearing loss is common in older adults and limits communication. We investigated the independent association between functional hearing loss and social engagement in a nationally representative sample of older adults.
Using data from the 2015 Medicare Current Beneficiaries Survey, we modeled the cross-sectional association between self-reported hearing ability and limitation in social activity over the past month using multivariable logistic regression.
The majority of the study population was female (54.8%) and non-Hispanic white (74.3%). Participants (40.4%) reported "a little trouble" hearing and 7.4% reported "a lot of trouble" hearing. Those who reported any trouble hearing had higher odds of limited social engagement in the past month. After adjustment for demographic, clinical, and functional covariates, those who reported "a lot of trouble" hearing had 37% higher odds of limited social activity in the past month compared to those with normal hearing.
These results suggest that hearing loss may be an important risk factor for limited social engagement and downstream negative health consequences, independent of other disability and health conditions.
听力损失在老年人中很常见，会限制其交流能力。我们调查了在具有全国代表性的老年人群体中，功能性听力损失与社会参与之间的独立关联。
使用来自 2015 年 Medicare 现行受益人调查的数据，我们使用多变量逻辑回归模型，分析了自我报告的听力能力与过去一个月内社会活动受限之间的横断面关联。
研究人群中大多数为女性（54.8%）和非西班牙裔白人（74.3%）。参与者（40.4%）报告“有点听力困难”，7.4%报告“听力困难很大”。那些报告有听力问题的人，过去一个月社会参与受限的可能性更高。在调整人口统计学、临床和功能协变量后，与听力正常者相比，报告“听力困难很大”的人过去一个月社会活动受限的可能性要高出 37%。
这些结果表明，听力损失可能是社会参与受限和下游负面健康后果的一个重要危险因素，独立于其他残疾和健康状况。
