Prevalence of Concurrent Functional Vision and Hearing Impairment and Its Association with Dementia

Vision and hearing impairment are common and independently linked to dementia risk. Adults with concurrent vision and hearing impairment (dual sensory impairment, DSI) may be particularly at-risk. Data were from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) (2011–2018, N=7,562). Functional sensory impairments were self-reported (no impairment, vision only, hearing only, and DSI). We calculated age-specific prevalence of sensory impairments. Discrete time proportional hazards model with a complementary log-log link were used to assess 7-year dementia risk. Of 7,562 participants, overall prevalence of functional vision, hearing and DSI was 5.4%, 18.9% and 3.1%, respectively. DSI prevalence increased with age, impacting 1 in 7 adults ≥90 years. DSI was associated with a 50% increased 7-year dementia risk (adjusted hazard ratio 1.50; 95% confidence interval, 1.12–2.02) compared to no impairment. Sensory rehabilitative interventions for multiple impairments may be an avenue for consideration in efforts to reduce dementia risk.