Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun;28(4):644-60.
doi: 10.1177/0898264315608730. Epub 2015 Oct 5.

Association of Hearing Impairment With Incident Frailty and Falls in Older Adults

Rebecca J Kamil  1 , Joshua Betz  2 , Becky Brott Powers  3 , Sheila Pratt  4 , Stephen Kritchevsky  5 , Hilsa N Ayonayon  6 , Tammy B Harris  7 , Elizabeth Helzner  8 , Jennifer A Deal  2 , Kathryn Martin  9 , Matthew Peterson  10 , Suzanne Satterfield  11 , Eleanor M Simonsick  12 , Frank R Lin  2 ; Health ABC study
Affiliations

Association of Hearing Impairment With Incident Frailty and Falls in Older Adults

Rebecca J Kamil et al. J Aging Health. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls.

Method: Longitudinal analysis of observational data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study of 2,000 participants aged 70 to 79 was conducted. Hearing was defined by the pure-tone-average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better hearing ear. Frailty was defined as a gait speed of <0.60 m/s and/or inability to rise from a chair without using arms. Falls were assessed annually by self-report.

Results: Older adults with moderate-or-greater HI had a 63% increased risk of developing frailty (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 1.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.26, 2.12]) compared with normal-hearing individuals. Moderate-or-greater HI was significantly associated with a greater annual percent increase in odds of falling over time (9.7%, 95% CI = [7.0, 12.4] compared with normal hearing, 4.4%, 95% CI = [2.6, 6.2]).

Discussion: HI is independently associated with the risk of frailty in older adults and with greater odds of falling over time.

Keywords: Health ABC; falls; frailty; hearing impairment; older adults.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Dr. Lin serves as a consultant for Cochlear Americas, and is on the scientific advisory board for Pfizer and Autifony; has received an honoraria for teaching and speaking from Amplifon; and has a non-financial relationship consisting of volunteer speaking with Med-El.

References

    1. Agrawal Y, Carey JP, Della Santina CC, Schubert MC, Minor LB. Disorders of balance and vestibular function in US adults: Data from the national health and nutrition examination survey, 2001–2004. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009;169:938–944. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.66. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Avila-Funes JA, Amieva H, Barberger-Gateau P, Le Goff M, Raoux N, Ritchie K, … Dartigues JF. Cognitive impairment improves the predictive validity of the phenotype of frailty for adverse health outcomes: The three-city study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2009;57:453–461. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.02136.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bandeen-Roche K, Xue QL, Ferrucci L, Walston J, Guralnik JM, Chaves P, … Fried LP. Phenotype of frailty: Characterization in the women’s health and aging studies. The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences & Medical Sciences. 2006;61:262–266. - PubMed
    1. Bonnet F, Irving K, Terra JL, Nony P, Berthezene F, Moulin P. Anxiety and depression are associated with unhealthy lifestyle in patients at risk of cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis. 2005;178:339–344. - PubMed
    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Self-reported falls and fall-related injuries among persons aged > or =65 years—United States, 2006. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2008;57:225–229. - PubMed

Publication types