title: Falls, injuries from falls, health related quality of life and mortality in older adults with vision and hearing impairment--is there a gender difference?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vision and hearing decline with age. Loss of these senses is associated with increased risk of falls, injuries from falls, mortality and decreased health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Our objective was to determine if there are gender differences in the associations between visual and hearing impairment and these outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  2340 men and 3014 women aged 76-81 years from the Health in Men Study and the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health were followed for an average of 6.36 years. Dependent variables were self-reported vision and hearing impairment. Outcome variables were falls, injuries from falls, physical and mental components of HRQOL (SF-36 PCS and MCS) and all-cause mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Vision impairment was more common in women and hearing impairment was more common in men. Vision impairment was associated with increased falls risk (odds ratio (OR)=1.77, 95% CI=1.35-2.32 in men; OR=1.82, 95% CI=1.44-2.30 in women), injuries from falls (OR=1.69, 95% CI=1.23-2.34 in men, OR=1.79, 95% CI=1.38-2.33 in women), and mortality (hazard ratio (HR)=1.44; 95% CI=1.17-1.77 in men; HR=1.50, 95% CI=1.24-1.82 in women) and declines in SF-36 PCS and MCS. Hearing impairment was associated with increased falls risk (OR=1.38, 95% CI=1.08-1.78 in men; OR=1.45, 95% CI=1.08-1.93 in women) and declines in SF-36 PCS and MCS. Overall there were no gender differences in the association between vision and hearing impairment and the outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In men and women aged 76-81 years, there were no gender differences in the association between self-reported vision and hearing impairment and the outcomes of falls, mortality and HRQOL.
authors.affiliation: Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing (WACHA), Centre for Medical Research, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia. derrick.lopez@uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Derrick
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.forename: Kieran A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: McCaul
authors.forename: Graeme J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hankey
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Osvaldo P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Annette J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Dobson
authors.forename: Julie E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Byles
authors.forename: Bu B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Yeap
authors.forename: Leon
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Flicker
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000401:mortality / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011788:Quality of Life; D012307:Risk Factors; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology*