Associations of dual sensory impairment with incident mobility and ADL difficulty

BACKGROUND: There is a dearth of studies examining the associations of objectively measured dual sensory impairment (DSI) with incident mobility and activities of daily life (ADL) difficulty longitudinally. METHODS: Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the associations of DSI and single sensory impairment (hearing, vision) with incident mobility difficulty (many problems or inability to walk ¼ mile and/or climb 10 steps) and ADL difficulty up to six years of follow-up among 2,020 participants of the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study, a cohort of older adults aged 70–79 years from Pittsburgh, PA and Memphis, TN. Vision impairment (VI) was defined as impaired visual acuity (20/50 or worse on Bailey-Lovie distance test) and contrast sensitivity (25 decibels. Models were adjusted by age, race, sex, education, diabetes, depressive symptoms, hypertension, gait speed from 20-meter walk, global cognition score, prevalent cardiovascular disease, and body mass index. RESULTS: There were 23% with DSI (n=459). DSI was associated with increased risk of both incident report of mobility (Hazard Ratio [HR]=2.25, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.47, 3.43) and ADL difficulty (HR=2.26, 95% CI: 1.50, 3.40). Neither VI nor HI alone were associated with risk of either outcome. CONCLUSIONS: DSI is associated with increased risk of incident mobility and ADL difficulty. Rehabilitation and adaptive environmental changes for individuals living with DSI may be important to maximize mobility and daily function.