Hearing aid use and falls risk (Riska et al., 2021)

Purpose: Falls are considered a significant public health issue, and hearing loss has been shown to be an independent risk factor for falls. The primary objective of this study was to determine if hearing aid use modified (reduced) the association. We hypothesized that routine hearing aid use would reduce the impact of hearing loss on the odds of falling. If hearing aid users have reduced odds of falling, then that would have an important impact on falls prevention health care.Method: Data from 8,091 individuals 40 years of age and older who completed National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 1999–2004 were used. NHANES comprises a series of cross-sectional studies, each of which is representative of the total civilian noninstitutionalized population of children and adults in the United States, enabling unbiased national estimates of health that can be independently reproduced. Self-reported hearing, hearing aid status, falls history, and comorbidities were extracted and analyzed using regression modeling.Results: The 8,091 individuals were grouped based on a self-reported history of falls in the last year. Self-reported hearing loss was significantly associated with odds of falling. Categorizing individuals based on routine hearing aid use was included as an interaction term in the fully adjusted models and was not significant, suggesting no difference in falls based on hearing aid status.Conclusions: The unique results of the current study show that when examining self-reported hearing in a nationally representative sample, hearing aid use does not appear to mitigate or modify the association between self-reported hearing and falls. Future research designs are highlighted to address limitations identified using NHANES data for this research, and focus on the use of experimental designs to further understand the association between hearing loss and falls, and whether hearing loss may be a modifiable risk factor for falls.Supplemental Material S1. NHANES variables used to define measures of interest.Supplemental Material S2. Odds ratio of self-reported falls by hearing loss as measured by hearing handicap.Riska, K. M., Peskoe, S. B., Gordee, A., Kuchibhatla, M., & Smith, S. L. (2021). Preliminary evidence on the impact of hearing aid use on falls risk in individuals with self-reported hearing loss. American Journal of Audiology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJA-20-00179

目的：跌倒被视为一项重大的公共卫生问题，而听力损失已被证明是跌倒的独立风险因素。本研究的主要目标是确定助听器使用是否改变了（减少了）这种关联。我们假设常规使用助听器将降低听力损失对跌倒概率的影响。如果助听器用户具有较低的跌倒概率，那么这将对跌倒预防的医疗卫生产生重要影响。
方法：本研究使用了8,091名40岁及以上个体在1999-2004年期间完成的美国国家健康与营养调查（NHANES）周期的数据。NHANES包括一系列横断面研究，每一项研究都代表了美国总体的非机构化儿童和成人非机构化人口，从而能够提供无偏见的健康国家估计，这些估计可以独立地进行复制。通过回归模型提取和分析自我报告的听力、助听器状态、跌倒史和合并症。
结果：8,091名个体根据自我报告的过去一年跌倒史进行了分组。自我报告的听力损失与跌倒概率显著相关。将个体根据常规使用助听器进行分类，作为完全调整模型中的交互项，结果并不显著，表明助听器状态对跌倒没有差异。
结论：当前研究的独特结果表明，在检查具有全国代表性样本的自我报告听力时，助听器使用似乎并未减轻或改变自我报告的听力与跌倒之间的关联。未来研究设计被强调，以解决使用NHANES数据进行研究时发现的局限性，并聚焦于使用实验设计来进一步了解听力损失与跌倒之间的关联，以及听力损失是否可能是跌倒的可改变风险因素。
补充材料S1：用于定义感兴趣措施的美国国家健康与营养调查（NHANES）变量。
补充材料S2：根据听力障碍测量的自我报告跌倒的概率比。
Riska, K. M., Peskoe, S. B., Gordee, A., Kuchibhatla, M., & Smith, S. L. (2021). 关于助听器使用对自我报告听力损失个体跌倒风险影响的初步证据。美国听觉学杂志。在线预发表。https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_AJA-20-00179