Vision and hearing loss ‘go hand in hand’

There may be a strong correlation between visual impairment and a loss of hearing in older adults, a new study claims.

Research conducted by the University of Sydney, Australia, suggests that visually impaired people are almost twice as likely to suffer from deafness.

The study, published in the Archives of Ophthalmology journal, involved 1,911 adults, with an average age of 70, whose hearing and visual abilities were examined five years after being originally evaluated between 1997 and 1999.

Professor Chia Ee-Munn and colleagues at the university found that nine per cent of study participants had vision worse than 20/40, while three per cent of people had the same vision even when wearing contact lenses or glasses.

Two-fifths of people involved in the study overall suffered from some form of hearing impairment, but, crucially, hearing loss occurred in two-thirds of patients classed as visually-impaired.

Although the report’s authors admit that loss of hearing and vision may be a regular consequence of ageing, they write: “Irrespective of the cause of sensory impairment, these two impairments were found to have a cumulative effect on function and wellbeing, significantly affecting both physical and mental domains.

“Further studies are needed to understand the relationship between visual and hearing impairments in older persons and to determine whether intervention to improve these impairments could delay biologic ageing.”