Hearing and vision difficulty and sequential treatment among older adults in India

Abstract

Aging not only affect biomarker-related processes, but it also affects the physiological processes of the human body. Of all the physiological processes, hearing and vision are of utmost importance to a human. Therefore, this study examines the prevalence and factors associated with hearing and vision difficulty and their sequential treatment among older adults in India. Utilizing data from Building a Knowledge Base on Population Aging in India, study used two sets of outcome variables; firstly, self-reported hearing and vision difficulty and secondly, treatment-seeking for hearing and vision difficulty. A total of 9541 older adults aged 60+ years from seven major regionally representative states were selected. Descriptive statistics were used to perform preliminary analysis. Additionally, the study employed the Heckprobit selection model. It is a two-equation model. This model is used in order to accommodate the heterogeneity (i.e., shared unobserved factors) among older adults and then address the endogeneity (between hearing and vision loss problems and their treatment-seeking behaviour) for older adults in India, the model offers a two-step analysis and deals with the zero-sample issue. Around 59% and 21% of older adults reported vision and hearing difficulty, respectively. Only 5% of older adults suffering from hearing difficulty reported utilizing hearing aids. Lifestyle factors (smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco) significantly affect hearing and vision difficulty; various chronic diseases were also found to be associated with high levels of hearing and vision difficulty among older adults. Results from Heckprobit model shows that older adults with 11+ years of education had higher probability to use visual [β = 0.54, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.37, 0.70] and hearing aids [β = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.18, 1.02]. The use of hearing and vision aids was lower among poor older adults, older adults from Scheduled Caste, and older adults in rural areas. The study indicates that more than half of older adults face vision difficulty and almost one-fourth face hearing difficulty in rural India, education and lifestyle appear to be the main driver of health-seeking behaviour. Additional attention shall be given to understand the strategies that may advocate a higher use for hearing aids among older adults.

Figure 1

Percentage of older adults suffering from vision and hearing disability and their utilization of visual and hearing aids.