HHS Public Access Author manuscript Author Manuscript
J Aging Health. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 October 17. Published in final edited form as: J Aging Health. 2016 June ; 28(4): 644–660. doi:10.1177/0898264315608730.
Association of Hearing Impairment With Incident Frailty and Falls in Older Adults
Author Manuscript
Rebecca J. Kamil, MD1, Joshua Betz, MS1, Becky Brott Powers, MD2, Sheila Pratt, PhD2,3, Stephen Kritchevsky, PhD4, Hilsa N. Ayonayon, PhD5, Tammy B. Harris, MD, MS6, Elizabeth Helzner, PhD7, Jennifer A. Deal, PhD1, Kathryn Martin, PhD, MPH8, Matthew Peterson, PhD2,9, Suzanne Satterfield, MD, DPH10, Eleanor M. Simonsick, PhD1,6, and Frank R. Lin, MD, PhD1 for the Health ABC study 1Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 2U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA 3University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA 4Wake Forest University, WinstonSalem, NC, USA 5University of California, San Francisco, USA 6National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA 7State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA 8University of Aberdeen, Scotland 9Duke University, Durham, NC, USA 10University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA
Abstract Author Manuscript
Objective—We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls. Method—Longitudinal analysis of observational data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study of 2,000 participants aged 70 to 79 was conducted. Hearing was defined by the pure-tone-average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better hearing ear. Frailty was defined as a gait speed of
J Aging Health. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 October 17. Published in final edited form as: J Aging Health. 2016 June ; 28(4): 644–660. doi:10.1177/0898264315608730.
Association of Hearing Impairment With Incident Frailty and Falls in Older Adults
Author Manuscript
Rebecca J. Kamil, MD1, Joshua Betz, MS1, Becky Brott Powers, MD2, Sheila Pratt, PhD2,3, Stephen Kritchevsky, PhD4, Hilsa N. Ayonayon, PhD5, Tammy B. Harris, MD, MS6, Elizabeth Helzner, PhD7, Jennifer A. Deal, PhD1, Kathryn Martin, PhD, MPH8, Matthew Peterson, PhD2,9, Suzanne Satterfield, MD, DPH10, Eleanor M. Simonsick, PhD1,6, and Frank R. Lin, MD, PhD1 for the Health ABC study 1Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 2U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA 3University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA 4Wake Forest University, WinstonSalem, NC, USA 5University of California, San Francisco, USA 6National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD, USA 7State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA 8University of Aberdeen, Scotland 9Duke University, Durham, NC, USA 10University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, USA
Abstract Author Manuscript
Objective—We aimed to determine whether hearing impairment (HI) in older adults is associated with the development of frailty and falls. Method—Longitudinal analysis of observational data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study of 2,000 participants aged 70 to 79 was conducted. Hearing was defined by the pure-tone-average of hearing thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz in the better hearing ear. Frailty was defined as a gait speed of
