Older adults with dual sensory loss in rehabilitation show high functioning and may fare better than those with single sensory loss

The population of older adults that have Dual Sensory Loss (DSL) is increasing, yet most research to date has focused on single sensory impairment and is inconclusive as to whether DSL is associated with worse impact on health and well-being over single sensory loss. The primary aim of this study was to characterize the health and functioning of community-dwelling older adults with DSL who were receiving sensory rehabilitation, using an understudied assessment: the interRAI Community Health Assessment (CHA). The secondary aim was to investigate whether older adults with DSL had worse health-related outcomes than their peers with only vision loss (VL) or only hearing loss (HL). We report and compare the interRAI CHA results in a sample of 200 older adults (61+ years of age) who had DSL, VL or HL. Overall, all sensory impairment groups showed high functioning in the areas of cognition, communication, activities of daily living, depression, and psycho-social well-being. DSL was not always associated with worse outcomes compared to a single sensory loss. Rather, the results varied depending on the tasks assessed, as well as which groups were compared. Our findings highlight that despite the negative impact of sensory losses, community-dwelling older adults receiving sensory rehabilitation services tend to have overall good health and a high level of independence. These results also show that DSL is not always associated with worse outcomes compared to a single sensory loss. Further research is needed to better characterize older adults with DSL who have more severe sensory and cognitive difficulties than those in our sample, and among those who are not receiving rehabilitation services.