Highlights
- •Two measures of frailty, the FRAIL scale and the frailty Index, were used in this study.
- •Hearing impairment was associated with frailty, regardless of its definition.
- •The association between hearing loss and frailty cannot be explained by social isolation alone.
- •The proportion of men with hearing loss increased with increased severity of frailty.
Abstract
Objective
To determine if hearing loss is associated with increased risk of frailty in later
life.
Study design
Cross-sectional study of a community sample of 4,004 men aged 70 years and above living
in the metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia. Data were retrieved from the
Health in Men Study (HIMS) and the Western Australian Data Linkage System (WADLS).
Frailty was assessed using the FRAIL scale and the Frailty Index. Hearing loss was
defined by self-report or by diagnosis recorded in the WADLS. We also collected demographic,
lifestyle and social support information.
Main outcome measures
Frailty was assessed using the FRAIL scale and the Frailty Index.
Results
The prevalence of frailty in the sample population was 16.1% and 25.4% when assessed
using the FRAIL scale and the Frailty Index respectively. After adjusting for participant
demographic, lifestyle and social factors, hearing loss was significantly associated
with the prevalence of frailty when diagnosed by either measure (FRAIL scale: odds
ratio [OR] 1.59, 95 CI% 1.32 to 1.91; Frailty Index: OR 1.76, 95 CI% 1.50 to 2.05).
The proportion of men with hearing loss increased with increasing severity of frailty.
Conclusion
Hearing loss is associated with increased prevalence of frailty in older men when
assessed using the FRAIL scale and the Frailty Index. Future longitudinal studies
using objective measures of hearing will be helpful in determining if this association
is likely to be causal.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
HIMS (the Health in Men Study), WADLS (Western Australian Data Linkage System), ICD (the International Classification of Diseases), SD (standard deviation), df (degrees of freedom), OR (odds ratio), CI (confidence interval)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 21, 2021
Accepted:
October 19,
2021
Received in revised form:
July 11,
2021
Received:
March 21,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
