O' Dowd Alan, Hirst Rebecca J, Setti Annalisa, Kenny Rose Anne, Newell Fiona N
School of Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
Innov Aging. 2022 Nov 2;6(7):igac069. doi: 10.1093/geroni/igac069. eCollection 2022.
Self-reported sensory data provide important insight into an individual's perception of sensory ability. It remains unclear what factors predict longitudinal change in self-reported sensory ability across multiple modalities during healthy aging. This study examined these associations in a cohort of older adults for vision, hearing, taste, and smell.
Data on self-report sensory ability were drawn from 5,065 participants of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (mean age at baseline = 61.6, = 9.5, range 32-93 years; 59% female; resident in the Republic of Ireland) across 6 waves of data collection (2009-2021). Covariates included demographics, lifestyle factors, and measures of sensory, physical, mental, and cognitive health. Independent discrete survival analyses were performed for each sensory modality.
A transition to self-reported fair/poor hearing was most prevalent (21% of the sample), followed by fair/poor vision (19%), smell (11%), and taste (6%). Participants who self-reported fair/poor function in one sensory modality were likely to report fair/poor ability in another sensory modality, although not for all pairings. Only self-rated fair/poor health was associated with increased odds of self-reported fair/poor ability across all sensory modalities. Age was associated with increased odds of self-reported fair/poor hearing, smell, and taste, as was current smoker status (vision, smell, and taste). Several other sensory (e.g., eye disease, hearing aid use) and nonsensory covariates (e.g., education, depression) were associated with the odds of self-reported fair/poor ability in one or two sensory modalities only.
Over time, older adults perceive associations in fair/poor ability for multiple sensory modalities, albeit somewhat inconsistently. Both modality-general and modality-specific factors are associated with a transition from normal to fair/poor sensory ability. These results suggest the need for more routine testing of multiple senses with increasing age.
自我报告的感官数据为了解个体对感官能力的感知提供了重要见解。目前尚不清楚在健康衰老过程中，哪些因素能够预测自我报告的多种感官能力的纵向变化。本研究在一组老年人中考察了视觉、听觉、味觉和嗅觉方面的这些关联。
自我报告感官能力的数据来自爱尔兰老龄化纵向研究的5065名参与者（基线平均年龄 = 61.6岁，标准差 = 9.5岁，年龄范围32 - 93岁；59%为女性；居住在爱尔兰共和国），数据收集共进行了6轮（2009 - 2021年）。协变量包括人口统计学特征、生活方式因素以及感官、身体、心理和认知健康指标。对每种感官模态进行独立的离散生存分析。
自我报告听力为中等/较差的转变最为普遍（占样本的21%），其次是视觉中等/较差（19%）、嗅觉（11%）和味觉（6%）。在一种感官模态中自我报告功能为中等/较差的参与者，在另一种感官模态中也可能报告能力中等/较差，不过并非所有配对都是如此。只有自我评定的健康状况中等/较差与所有感官模态中自我报告能力中等/较差的几率增加相关。年龄与自我报告听力、嗅觉和味觉中等/较差的几率增加相关，当前吸烟状况也是如此（视觉、嗅觉和味觉）。其他一些感官协变量（如眼病、使用助听器）和非感官协变量（如教育程度、抑郁）仅与一两种感官模态中自我报告能力中等/较差的几率相关。
随着时间推移，老年人在多种感官模态的中等/较差能力方面察觉到关联，尽管存在一定不一致性。模态通用和模态特定因素均与从正常感官能力转变为中等/较差感官能力相关。这些结果表明，随着年龄增长，需要对多种感官进行更常规的检测。
