title: Hearing handicap predicts the development of depressive symptoms after 3 years in older community-dwelling Japanese.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between hearing handicap and depressive symptoms in older community-dwelling Japanese.
  
  
  METHODS
  Community-based cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Kurabuchi Town, Gunma Prefecture, Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five hundred eighty residents (261 men, 319 women) aged 65 and older without depressive symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a baseline examination performed in 2005/06, participants answered the 10-item screening version of the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Elderly (HHIE-S). They were divided into two groups according to their scores: a group with no hearing handicap (HHIE-S scores of < or =8) and a hearing handicap group (HHIE-S scores of > or =10). The Geriatric Depression Scale was used to identify depressive symptoms in face-to-face home visit interviews conducted in 2008, and the association between hearing handicap and depressive symptoms was assessed using logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The incidence of depressive symptoms was 19.6% in the group with a hearing handicap and 8.0% in the group without a hearing handicap. When compared with the subjects without hearing handicap, subjects with a hearing handicap had a multiadjusted odds ratio of depressive symptoms of 2.45 (95% confidence interval=1.26-4.77). The association remained significant even when hearing impairment measured with pure-tone audiometry was added to the multiadjusted model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A hearing handicap can predict future depressive symptoms in older community-dwelling people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishiwaki
authors.forename: Takehiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Michikawa
authors.forename: Yuriko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Kunio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizutari
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takebayashi
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ogawa
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D013997:Time Factors