Hearing handicap predicts the development of depressive symptoms after 3 years in older community-dwelling Japanese.
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.
Saito
Hideyuki
H
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
Nishiwaki
Yuji
Y
Michikawa
Takehiro
T
Kikuchi
Yuriko
Y
Mizutari
Kunio
K
Takebayashi
Toru
T
Ogawa
Kaoru
K
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