Search

Objective: The present study aims to examine the longitudinal relationship between hearing loss (HL) with depression in older adults over 12 years of follow-up.Method: Eight thousand three hundred forty-four French community-dwelling adults aged 65 and above participated in the Three-City prospective population-based study. Baseline relationships between self-reported mild and severe HL with depression-assessed by both the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and by the Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression scale-were explored using logistic regression analyses. Logistic mixed models assessed whether baseline HL was associated with incident depression diagnosis or symptom onset over 12 years in those who were depression-free at baseline.Results: At baseline, mild and severe HL were associated with depression symptoms as assessed by the CESD (OR = 1.29, 95% CIs 1.14-1.47; OR = 1.51, 95% CIs 1.22-1.87; respectively), although only mild HL was significantly related to major depression diagnosis (OR = 1.51, 95% CIs 1.07-2.12). Over 12 years, mild and severe HL were associated with incident depression as assessed by the CESD in those without depression at baseline (OR = 1.36, 95% CIs 1.15-1.61; OR = 1.69, 95% CIs 1.15-2.30; respectively), but was not associated with a major depression diagnosis.Conclusions: Both mild and severe thresholds of HL are associated with depression symptoms over time, but not with incident diagnosis of major depression. Improved and ongoing detection of subthreshold depression amongst older adults with HL may improve quality of life for this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The established relationship between vision impairment and depression is limited by the examination of depression only as a unidimensional construct. The present study explores the vision-depression relationship using a dimensional approach.Methods: 9036 participants aged 65 years and above enrolled in the Three-City study were included. Relationships between baseline near Vision Impairment (VI) or self-reported distance Visual Function (VF) loss with trajectory of four dimensions of depression - depressed affect, positive affect, somatic symptoms and interpersonal problems - over 12 years were examined using mixed-effects models. Depression dimensions were determined using the four-factor structure of the Centre for Epidemiology Studies-Depression Scale (CESD).Results: In the fully adjustment models, mild near VI predicted poorer depressed affect (b = 0.04, p = .002) and positive affect (b = -0.06, p < 0.001) over time, with evidence of longer term adjustment. Distance VF loss was associated with poorer depressed affect (b = 0.27, p ≤ .001), positive affect (b = -0.15, p = .002), and somatic symptoms (b = 0.18, p ≤ .001) at baseline, although only the association with depressed affect was significant longitudinally (b = 0.01, p = .001). Neither near VI nor distance VF loss was associated with interpersonal problems.Limitations: This paper uses a well-supported model of depression dimensions, however, there remains no definite depression dimension model. Distance VF loss was self-reported, which can be influenced by depression symptoms.Conclusions: Vision impairment in older adults is primarily associated with affective dimensions of depression. A reduction in social connectedness and ability to engage in pleasurable activities may underlie the depression-vision relationship. Older adults with vision impairment may benefit from targeted treatment of affective symptoms, and pleasant event scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]