[Hearing loss and social frailty in older men and women]

Abstract

Objective: To explore the association between hearing loss and social frailty in a sample of Spanish older adults recruited from primary health care network.

Method: Cross-sectional study on a sample of 445 non-institutionalized adults aged 65 or more years (190 men and 255 women), recruited from primary care centers in Spain. Three self-reported hearing impairment questions were used to assess hearing loss. Social frailty was deemed to exist when the person presented two or more of the following conditions: living alone, absence of a person to provide help, infrequent contact with family, infrequent contact with friends, lack of confident and lack of help for daily activities in the last 3 months. To study the association between hearing loss and social frailty we used logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders, including physical frailty.

Results: The mean age of participants was 76.2 years (77.5 years for women). More than half of the participants (54.4%) reported hearing loss and the frequency of social frailty was 23.2%. Hearing loss was associated with social frailty (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.78; 95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 1.04-3.06). However, the association was sex-dependent (p for interaction=0.041). In stratified analysis, the association was only found in women (aOR=3.21; 95%CI: 1.44-7.17).

Conclusions: Hearing loss was associated with social frailty in women, but not in men. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm this association and to understand the differential effect of gender.

Keywords: Adultos mayores; Aislamiento social; Fragilidad; Fragilidad social; Frailty; Hearing impairment; Hearing loss; Limitación auditiva; Older adults; Presbiacusia; Presbycusis; Pérdida auditiva; Sex; Sexo; Social frailty; Social isolation; Social support; Soporte social.