Department of Head & Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Ear Hear. 2022 Mar/Apr;43(2):487-494. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001111.
Falls are considered a significant public health issue and falls risk increases with age. There are many age-related physiologic changes that occur that increase postural instability and the risk for falls (i.e., age-related sensory declines in vision, vestibular, somatosensation, age-related orthopedic changes, and polypharmacy). Hearing loss has been shown to be an independent risk factor for falls. The primary objective of this study was to determine if hearing aid use modified (reduced) the association between self-reported hearing status and falls or falls-related injury. We hypothesized that hearing aid use would reduce the impact of hearing loss on the odds of falling and falls-related injury. If hearing aid users have reduced odds of falling compared with nonhearing aid users, then that would have an important implications for falls prevention healthcare.
Data were drawn from the 2004-2016 surveys of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). A generalized estimating equation approach was used to fit logistic regression models to determine whether or not hearing aid use modifies the odds of falling and falls injury associated with self-reported hearing status.
A total of 17,923 individuals were grouped based on a self-reported history of falls. Self-reported hearing status was significantly associated with odds of falling and with falls-related injury when controlling for demographic factors and important health characteristics. Hearing aid use was included as an interaction in the fully-adjusted models and the results showed that there was no difference in the association between hearing aid users and nonusers for either falls or falls-related injury.
The results of the present study show that when examining self-reported hearing status in a longitudinal sample, hearing aid use does not impact the association between self-reported hearing status and the odds of falls or falls-related injury.
跌倒被认为是一个重大的公共卫生问题，且随着年龄的增长，跌倒风险会增加。许多与年龄相关的生理变化会导致姿势不稳定和跌倒风险增加（例如，与年龄相关的视觉、前庭、体感感觉下降、与年龄相关的骨科变化和多种药物治疗）。听力损失已被证明是跌倒的独立危险因素。本研究的主要目的是确定助听器的使用是否改变（降低）了自我报告的听力状况与跌倒或与跌倒相关的伤害之间的关联。我们假设助听器的使用将降低听力损失对跌倒和与跌倒相关的伤害的可能性的影响。如果与未使用助听器的人相比，助听器使用者跌倒的可能性降低，那么这将对跌倒预防保健产生重要影响。
数据来自 2004 年至 2016 年健康与退休研究（HRS）的调查。采用广义估计方程方法拟合逻辑回归模型，以确定助听器的使用是否改变了与自我报告的听力状况相关的跌倒和与跌倒相关的伤害的可能性。
共有 17923 人根据自我报告的跌倒史进行分组。自我报告的听力状况与跌倒的可能性以及与跌倒相关的伤害显著相关，同时控制了人口统计学因素和重要的健康特征。助听器的使用被作为一个交互项纳入完全调整的模型中，结果表明，在与跌倒或与跌倒相关的伤害有关的使用者和非使用者之间，助听器的使用并没有差异。
本研究的结果表明，在对纵向样本中自我报告的听力状况进行检查时，助听器的使用不会影响自我报告的听力状况与跌倒的可能性或与跌倒相关的伤害之间的关联。
