Clinical and Translational Sciences Program, University of Vermont, 14 Adsit Court, Burlington, VT 05401, United States.
Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Science, University of Vermont, United States.
J Commun Disord. 2023 Mar-Apr;102:106316. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106316. Epub 2023 Mar 2.
Identifying the population-level prevalence of a disability group is a prerequisite to monitoring their inclusion in society. The prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics of older adults with communication disabilities (CDs) are not well established in the literature. In this study we sought to describe the prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics of community-dwelling older adults experiencing difficulties with understanding others or being understand when communicating in their usual language.
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Aging Trends Survey (2015), a nationally representative survey of Medicare beneficiaries ages ≥ 65 years old (N = 7,029). We calculated survey weight-adjusted prevalence estimates by mutually exclusive subgroups of no, hearing only, expressive-only, cognitive only, multiple CDs, and an aggregate any-CD prevalence. We described race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, marital status, social network size, federal poverty status, and supplemental insurance for all groups. Pearson's chi-squared statistic was used to compare sociodemographic characteristics between the any-CD and no-CD groups.
An estimated 25.3% (10.7 million) of community-dwelling older adults in the US experienced any-CDs in 2015; approximately 19.9% (8.4 million) experienced only one CD while 5.6% (2.4 million) had multiple. Older adults with CDs were more likely to be of Black race or Hispanic ethnicity as compared to older adults without CDs (Black 10.1 vs. 7.6%; Hispanic: 12.5 vs. 5.4%; P < 0.001). They also had lower educational attainment (Less than high school: 31.0 vs 12.4%; P < 0.001), lower poverty levels (<100% Federal poverty level: 23.5% vs. 11.1%; P < 0.001) and less social supports (Married: 51.3 vs. 61.0%; P < 0.001; Social network ≤ 1 person: 45.3 vs 36.0%; P < 0.001).
The proportion of the older adult population experiencing any-CDs is large and disproportionately represented by underserved sociodemographic groups. These findings support greater inclusion of any-CDs into population-level efforts like national surveys, public health goals, health services, and community research aimed at understanding and addressing the access needs of older adults who have disabilities in communication.
确定残疾群体的人群患病率是监测其社会包容度的前提条件。目前，有关社区居住的老年沟通障碍（CD）患者的患病率和社会人口学特征的文献还不多见。本研究旨在描述在其惯用语言交流时存在理解他人或被他人理解困难的社区居住的老年人群的患病率和社会人口学特征。
我们对全国健康老龄化趋势调查（2015 年）进行了横断面分析，该调查是对 Medicare 受益人的全国代表性调查，年龄≥65 岁（N=7029）。我们根据无、仅听力、仅表达、认知障碍、多种 CD 和任何 CD 总患病率这五个相互排斥的亚组计算了经调查权重调整后的患病率估计值。我们描述了所有组的种族/民族、年龄、性别、教育程度、婚姻状况、社交网络规模、联邦贫困状况和补充保险。采用 Pearson's 卡方检验比较了任何-CD 组和无-CD 组的社会人口学特征。
2015 年，美国约有 25.3%（1070 万人）的社区居住的老年人患有任何 CD；约 19.9%（840 万人）仅患有一种 CD，而 5.6%（240 万人）患有多种 CD。与无 CD 的老年人相比，患有 CD 的老年人更有可能为黑人或西班牙裔（黑人：10.1%比 7.6%；西班牙裔：12.5%比 5.4%；P<0.001）。他们的教育程度也较低（未完成高中学业：31.0%比 12.4%；P<0.001），贫困程度较低（<100%联邦贫困线：23.5%比 11.1%；P<0.001），社会支持较少（已婚：51.3%比 61.0%；P<0.001；社交网络≤1 人：45.3%比 36.0%；P<0.001）。
患有任何 CD 的老年人口比例较大，且不成比例地代表了服务不足的社会人口群体。这些发现支持将任何 CD 纳入人口水平的努力，如全国性调查、公共卫生目标、卫生服务和社区研究，以了解和满足在沟通方面存在障碍的老年人的需求。
