Visual impairment, hearing loss and cognitive function in an older population: Longitudinal findings from the blue mountains eye study

Abstract

The presence of visual impairment (VI) and hearing loss (HL) with may be a marker for subsequent cognitive decline over time in older people. A prospective, longitudinal population-based study of the 3654 participants of the Blue Mountains Eye Study were assessed for the associations between VI and HL and a decline in mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores over a duration of 10 years from the 5-year (baseline of this report) to the 15-year follow-up visits. MMSE was assessed at the 5-, 10-and 15-year follow-up visits. A decline 3 scores from 5-year to 10-or 15-year visits indicated possible cognitive decline. VI was defined as best-corrected visual acuity <6/12 in the worse-eye, HL was defined as pure-Tone average >40 decibels in the worse-ear and dual sensory impairment (DSI) was defined by the co-presence of VI and HL, detected at 5-year followup (baseline of this report). Participants with no VI and HL over the same 5-or 10-year corresponding period were controls. Associations of VI, HL and DSI with possible cognitive decline were assessed using logistic regression models adjusting for age and sex after excluding subjects with a stroke history. The presence of VI, HL or DSI was not associated with possible cognitive decline over 5 years (odds ratio (OR) 0.84, 95% confidence-intervals (CI) 0.40-1.79, OR 1.02, 95% CI 0.61-1.70 and 1.41, 95% CI 0.54-3.72, respectively) or 10 years (OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.52-2.30, OR 1.09, 95% CI 0.65-1.82 and 1.15, 95% CI 0.28-4.73, respectively). There were no changes to these findings after adjustment for other potential confounders. Age was significantly associated with possible cognitive decline (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.04-1.10 for both periods). Neither visual impairment, hearing loss nor dual sensory impairment was independently associated with subsequent decline in cognition. � 2016 Hong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in anymedium, provided the original author and source are credited.