Older Women in Australia: Facing the Challenges of Dual Sensory Loss.

Chyrisse Heine,Susan Feldman,Colette Browning,Cathy Honge Gong

doi:10.3390/ijerph17010263

Abstract

With the increase in longevity, the number of women living into old age is rising and higher than that of men. Data was derived from the Melbourne Longitudinal Studies on Healthy Ageing Program, which included 533 women and 467 men aged 65 years and older, in Australia, over 10 years. Logistic regression modeling was used to investigate the prevalence of dual sensory loss and the unmet needs for vision and hearing devices in older women (compared to men) over time, as well as its impacts on self-reported general health, depression, perceived social activities, community service use and ageing in place. Results suggested that the prevalence of dual sensory loss increased for women from the age of 75 years and over. Dual sensory loss was higher for older women and men who were living alone, with government benefits as their main income source or were divorced, separated or widowed. Dual sensory loss had significant impacts on poor general health, perceived inadequate social activities and community service use for women and men and on depression for women only. Early identification of dual sensory loss is essential to minimize its effects, ensuring continued well-being for this population.

Highlights

As adults age, they often experience a number of health conditions, including deterioration in vision and hearing
Multivariate regression analysis based on 1994 outcomes or predictors is shown in Table 8 and full regression results in Table S3 for women and Table 9 and Table S4 for men
There are some common and some different influence of the type of sensory loss experienced by women including: (1) Dual sensory loss (DSL), poor vision only or poor hearing only all had no significant influence on ageing in place but all had a significant influence on depression; (2) poor vision had a significant influence on self-reported health, while poor hearing had a significant influence on community service use and DSL on both; and (3) poor hearing and DSL, but not poor vision, had a significant influence on perceived inadequate social activities indicating that social participation and independence can be improved for those with poor hearing and DSL

Summary

Introduction

They often experience a number of health conditions, including deterioration in vision and hearing. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], there are 253 million people worldwide with vision impairment and 36 million people classified as legally blind. Of the global population with vision impairment, eighty one percent are aged 50 years and over with this percentage increasing as the older adult population increases worldwide. The prevalence of low vision amongst older adults (based on test measures) is 4.51% for 60–69-year-olds, 11.41% for. Hearing loss (as measured by self-report) is exacerbated as people grow older [4]) and approximately one-third of people with hearing loss are aged 65 years and over [5]

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