Incorporating vision and hearing tests into aged care assessment: methods and the pilot study.
OBJECTIVE
Vision and hearing impairments are frequent in older people and may contribute to their reliance on aged care services. This study aims to assess whether incorporating vision and hearing screening into routine aged care assessments and provision of appropriate health care services will influence health outcomes of older individuals.


METHODS
The proposed project is a 2 x 2 factorial design randomized controlled trial. The pilot study recruited 208 participants aged 65+ years attending an aged care assessment center at Westmead Hospital, Sydney, who were randomly allocated to one of four groups: vision and hearing tests, vision tests only, hearing tests only, or neither. Face-to-face interviews with all participants were conducted. Questionnaires included Activity of Daily Living (ADL), 36-item Short-Form health survey (SF-36), Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) and questions about use of health care and community support services. Participants will be re-examined after 12 months to assess changes over time in quality-of-life, physical and cognitive function, incident falls and use of health and community aged care services.
Jee
Jeanette
J
School of Applied Vision Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Wang
Jie Jin
JJ
Rose
Kathryn
K
Landau
Peter
P
Lindley
Richard
R
Mitchell
Paul
P
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014787:Vision Tests / Q000379:methods*